Skip to main content

New Ideas for the New Year?


Are you looking for a few new ideas this summer? Maybe something to improve a workshop, parent communication or just something fresh? Starting in a few days there is a HUGE educational technology conference happening in Texas. I believe there are over 16,000+ participants, you can just imagine how many ideas will flow during the conference.

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference runs from June 24-28.

So how can you hop on and join in?

Open TweetDeck and start to read.
     Don't have a twitter account? Make one! You will need one to use TweetDeck. I promise it won't disappoint. 
     You can also just click on the hashtags below and follow along. 
          #iste17 - people at the conference use this to tweet out new learning and ideas
          #notatiste17 this hashtag is used by those who are not at ISTE

Tweet Deck
TweetDeck opens with three main columns.
Home - your stream. Everything shared publicly shows up here.
Notifications - anytime your twitter name is mentioned.
Messages - private messages

Adding a new column
1. Click the little magnifying glass on the far left. Type in #iste17.
2. Click on the hashtag.

New column appears. Newest tweet will appear at the top. Once the conference starts this column will move faster than any human can read.
Repeat creating columns with people, ideas or hashtags.

Making It Work
1. I found something that looks interesting. I can click on the link and check out what it is all about.
2. I can also favorite it by click on the heart. This is like a bookmark, saved to look at later on.


Why TweetDeck?
I stared using twitter and TweetDeck a while back for idea generation. I know there could be a ton of junk in the feed, just like watching something on tv. Stuff that might be fun to look at but does not have a long lasting quality to it. By following a few key hashtags and people you can start to access fresh perspectives you did not have access to before. There is a lot of noise, after a while you can tune your feed to increase the quality. 

Share - if you see something please share it. Share with your building, a buddy or anyone you think could benefit. 

Need help bringing something to life? Just reach out, Doug and Colin can help.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Like your ELMO but with an iPad (elementary classroom teachers)

I used AirServer to create the infinity mirror effect. We were in a meeting today and Dominic told us about this fantastic idea. As we discussed all things technology he explained one method of using the iPad as a portable ELMO. It was too cool not to share. Step 1 Make sure you have AirServer running on your laptop. 1. Click the Windows key on your keyboard or click the icon in the lower left of your screen. 2. Just start typing AirServer. 3. Click AirServer. Don't see it? Contact technology or your building tech person. Step 2 Connect your teacher iPad to your laptop. 1. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Start by swiping in the bezel, the black plastic part surrounding the screen. 2. Click AirPlay Mirroring. 3. Click your name. Step 3 Open the camera app and instant portable ELMO! Anything you see in the camera's len will be broadcast to the big screen. I just used this method to take a picture of my notebook as a demonstration of how co

Annotate PDF? How might I do that?

So I have a PDF and I need to edit it. Here is one method that works pretty well for me. Open Word. Click File .  1. Click Open . 2. Click Browse . 3. Find the PDF you want to annotate. 4. Click Open . Click OK when you see this box. Bam! Your PDF now opens in Word. Note: you maybe have to click Enable Editing at the top of the screen. Finished editing and want to turn it back into a PDF? Click File . 1. Click Save As . 2. Click This PC . 3. Pick a location. I usually save things to my desktop. 4. Click Save as type - and choose PDF. 5. Click Save .

Who is emailing me? The Blue Man Group??? (Add an image to your Google account.)

WHY It is always nice to put a face with a name. Sometimes we need a tiny little reminder of what someone looks like because we don't see them very often. Follow these steps to add/change the image associated with your Google account. HOW Open your email. Click your image. It might just be a blue circle if you have not added something already. Click Change . Find an image you like. Your amazing new image will appear. From now on everyone can put a name to a face!