Learning in the Lou

I'm pretty sure the Marine Corps altered my DNA so I never get a decent night of sleep but I am an expert at napping. I just found this site/app on twitter to take my napping experience up to another level. I'm confident this would be perfect for the classroom as well. Start by visiting defonic . 1. Click on the picture to turn the sound off and on. Use the slider to increase or decrease the intensity. 2. I added a little bit of rain. 3. I threw in some thunder. This resulted in a beautiful background soundscape perfect for napping. Scroll down to find more sounds. Check out the coffee cup, maybe great for adding a little extra noise to help with concentration. 

So I was using the PhotoScan app to digitize some old Marine Corps photos and saw some artwork Aidan brought home. I thought that if the app worked on photos it would most likely work for paper things. Check out these results. Before. Just a regular camera shot of the art. After. Not too bad! The app copped it exactly to the edges, a perfect shot! This solves that age old problem, do I save these projects or sneak them into the trash while no one is looking. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that!)

What is Google Photos?      A quick and easy way to backup and share your photos and videos.      This app allows you to edit your images and add effects similar to what you see in many of the popular photo sharing apps available today. Why should I use Google Photos?      Digital asset management is hard! Think about your Google Drive or Shared With Me, are those easy to keep organized? We gather more digital files today than every before making some type of organizational strategy super important.      Google Photos is a free and unlimited way to back up every single photo and video you have.  Free  and  unlimited , need I say anymore? First Steps Download the app to your  iOS  or  Android  device. Select how you want your photos to be backed up.  The default is to backup over wifi. Be mindful if you pick cellular data as it will use your data plan. Videos tend to be massive fil...

I'm sure you have all filled out countless Google Forms over the years. Curious on how to make one? Just keep reading this post, we will walk you through the basics. Create the Form To get started open Google Drive. 1. Click New . 2. Click More . 3. Click Google Forms . 1. Create an informative title. Using something like Quiz might not be super helpful to the end user, what is it a quiz about? 2. Add a description or directions under the title. This will be very helpful in the long run. Creating a Question 1. Question title. 2. Short description or directions for this specific question. 3. Multiple choice questions. 4. Required question - you can't submit if you don't answer this question. Toggle it on/off. 5. I clicked this icon to add a description under the question title. Using a description under the title is a pro tip! 1. Click the plus symbol to add a question. Look to your right, you should see it there. For this exa...

Have an Android device and looking to post to your Blogger blog? Why not check out the official Blogger app . Open the app. Click the pencil icon to create a new post. You can also click Draft if you started to write but never published a post. 1. Create title for post. 2. Main body of you post. 3. Adding a photo. It appears to place the image at the very bottom of the post. 4. Click save to create a draft of the post. Click the arrow to publish the post.

blogger is available to all staff and students in grades 9-12. This post will show you how to set up a new blog using blogger. Start at blogger.com Click Sign In You may have to create a profile. 1. Click Create a Google+ profile . 2. Click Continue to Blogger . Fill this screen out. Click Create Profile . Continue to Blogger . 1. Click Create New Blog. Don't see the orange button? Click the downward facing arrow by number two. 1. Create a title. Think of this like a book, the title is usually directly related to what the whole story is about. 2. Address - no spaces or punctuation is allowed. Try using the title of your blog as the address. 3. Pick a template. You can always pick a different one later. 4. Click Create blog . Click New post to begin writing. 1. Title for your post. 2. Editing tools. You can embed videos by toggling HTML, add images to by clicking the little picture icon and more. 3. Where you ...

There are plenty of blogging apps for the iPad but none are as simple as blogo. Follow these simple steps to get your iPad synced up with your existing blogger blog. Note - The official Blogger app for the iPad/iPhone is no longer available. Download the blogo app on your iOS device. Fastest way to connect to your existing blog is to click on the Google button. Log in with your school Google account. 1. Type in your existing blogger address. 2. Click Add Blog . 1. Fill in your title and body of the blog. 2. Click on the three dots to add images. Click Library to search your device for an image to add. The app will allow you to adjust the image a bit before adding it to your post. Click Publish when you want the post to be seen by the public. Have a question? Why not check out the blogo help site .

Have you ever been too close to a problem that you keep circling it until all your energy is drained? Ever feel like that same issue keeps running you into a brick wall? If that is you, keep reading because we have stumbled upon a solution! A few of us attended an event put on by Connected Learning the other night. The idea of the Ed Pitch session was to crowdsource your issue and have those who came generate new ideas and solutions.  The format was pretty simple, you had two minutes to describe the issue and the crowd was give exactly ten minutes to ask questions and offer ideas. Everyone was given a stack of Post-It notes to jot down additional thoughts allowing everyone to have a voice. Those notes where handed to the person/team who pitched the room once their time was up. In twelve minutes you have a stack of new ideas to spark your problem solving efforts. All of this could take place during a plan time, lunch or those few minutes before and after school. ...

There are a million photo apps but this is currently my favorite. I know you can tinker with the photos after you take them but Lenka does black and white so well you don't have to do anything once you take a picture.  Lenka   is available for  Android  and  iOS . This image serves two purposes. First, I wanted to show you what this view looks like through the regular camera app. The second purpose was to document how clean my work area is.  This picture was taken with the Lenka app. It gives the whole image a totally different feel. The app interface is very simple. 1. Click the yellow button to take a picture. 2. Toggle these two buttons off/on to show/hide the sliders. These will allow you to create a cool or warm image depending on how you make your adjustments. Example Image We went to see Samantha the swan in Lafayette Park. Yep, she has a swan named after her!