tools | Steps in Teaching and Learning

Blogging from a smart phone

November 18, 2011 in blogging, mobile

I recently attended the ICTLive in Birmingham conference which was a wonderful opportunity to not only discover some new tools for use in classroom teaching and learning, and catch up with some friends I’ve gotten to know through my use of Twitter as my PLN of choice but also a chance to blog an event from my iPhone.
I could have brought my laptop but when you really think about how powerful smartphones have become it made no sense for me to do so. So how do you go about blogging from your smartphone? Follow these steps and you’ll be updating your blog with finger jabs in no time.

You can post to most blogs by emailing your post to your blog’s email posting address. You can usually find this in the blog settings.
Use an app to write a post. For this post I’m using the WordPress app on my iPhone. I can include some HTML markup like this and insert photos and video too.
You can create a new blog from your smart phone by using an app such as Posterous, Blogger or Tumblr. I have found the Posterous app to be the easiest to use with a new blog site being up and running in no time. I created the ICTLive site using the Posterous app.
Record audio by using the Audioboo or iPadio apps. Once the apps are set up you can capture interviews and post a link on Twitter or by email for your audience to listen to. iPadio allows listeners to follow along live so it’s a perfect live blogging tool. In my next post on blogging from a smartphone I intend to include a video demonstrating using Posterous to create a blog and post to it.

That’s just for starters. There are many more apps available to smart phone users that can have you blogging in no time. So what are you waiting around for? Use your smartphone for more than making calls, taking photos, writing notes, playing games, capturing video, creating pictures, solving puzzles…

Tags: blogging, iPhone, learning, technology, tools
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Bringing technology and children together

May 18, 2011 in Resources in the classroom, tools

in use

Today my school hosted its first multi-school creative technology session involving 15 children from different schools from the surrounding area. The aim was to demonstrate a few tools that my own class use, create a blog and let the children ‘run loose’ on those same tools. The result can be seen on our blog 90minutes which is on Posterous. Here’s Alex from the group to explain.

Children from my own class led the way as ‘techno warriors’ and their input was invaluable as they could help show the visiting children how they used the tools creatively in their own work. The children participating from the other schools had never used any of the tools that I included in the session, but this never hindered their enthusiasm to learn and create. The afternoon session was almost two hours long so we named the blog 90minutes to reflect the time we had available to us. At the end, every child left with a smile and full of enthusiasm, wanting to stay longer and continue creating content.

And that to me is what bringing technology and children together is about.

Tools we used

Posterous to set up the blog
DomoAnimate to create animated cartoons
AviaryEducation to create music
Audioboo to record the interview
iNudge to create loops
Google Docs for presentations

Tags: activities, classroom tech, creative, creativity, ideas, inspiration, Inspirational, learning, teaching, technology, tools, web 2.0
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Becoming an Apple Distinguished Educator

May 17, 2011 in learning, Resources in the classroom

A bite of the apple

During the first weekend of this month I attended the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Event in London along with just over 80 other educators from all over Europe. We spent 3 days in the hands of representatives from Apple Education who led the event and other ADE’s who came to guide us and present their work and research to us so that we too could start our own journey as an ADE.

Being an ADE involves 4 primary roles – advocate, advisor, author and ambassador. Each is connected to our relationship with Apple and the devices we use in our teaching and learning.
Advocate – passionate users of Apple technologies and able to present to others how to use these tools in education
Advisor – feedback to Apple how these technologies influence education
Author – publish examples of work using Apple technologies for others to learn from and use
Ambassador – build global communities to “expand the walls of the classroom”

Expanding the walls of the classroom was a theme that resonated throughout the event and we were given opportunities to explore this, bouncing ideas off each other and creating the basis of a collaborative project that we will be working on over the next few months. I will be looking at how we can give a voice to the learner and bring the learner back to the forefront of what education is all about. I have already posted a ‘in30seconds’ tip about this which involves setting up a video diary space for children to feel comfortable to go into and leave a video comment of their learning throughout the day. Making this a global project is the challenge. There are other projects that I was interested in and one in particular which is very exciting (but I’ll leave that under wraps for now).

The 4 primary roles are roles that I have also considered bringing into my classroom. Children could choose a role that would best fit the skills they have, for example, in Technology I could have:
advocates are passionate about technology and can demonstrate its use to others
advisors share why technology works for them and how it can help others
authors publish their own content for others to use and learn from
ambassadors build the community in school using a website and share this to the world, looking for new ways to collaborate and expand the classroom

The event was a fantastic opportunity to build on my own community of educators, share ideas and gain a better understanding of how others are using Apple technologies in their own environments and I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to attend.

Google Spreadsheet Tooltips – Magic fill and Google Lookup

July 31, 2010 in google teacher academy, learning, Resources in the classroom, tools

I just couldn’t wait to share two of the best tips I learned at the Google Teacher Academy and both are used in Google Spreadsheets – Magic Fill and Google Lookup.

Note PC users use CTRL key for Magic Fill, Mac users the ALT key