This page contains information and links to material related to the work I did on February 20, 2010, at the Dublin Literacy Conference. These resources will only remain available online for a limited time.

The materials are for your personal learning with some rights reserved under a Creative Commons, attribution, non-commercial, share alike license. You can find specific information about your legal obligations under that license at this link.

Below and throughout this post you will find links to student-created movies and screencast(s) of presentation(s) I made while visiting with you. The screencasts were made with ScreenFlow, a powerful program! The movies were made with iMovie and Final Cut Pro. For these media files to play in your browser, you must have QuickTime, which is free, properly installed on your Windows machine. (None of this should be an issue for Mac users as these come on your Mac at purchase.) Perhaps the best way to do that is to install iTunes on your Windows machine. iTunes, which is also free, opens up a whole world of amazing content to you! Download times for the media files vary depending on your connection speed. You may need to be patient!

My 3D Augmented Reality Business Card

If you haven't had a chance to experience my 3D Augmented Reality business card, be sure to check it out. You can still try it out even if you don't have one of my business cards. Just head on over to this link for a video demonstration of how it works as well as directions and a link to download the card so you can see it for yourself.

Keep in Touch

In addition to my blog and my podcast series, you can keep in touch using the resources listed here. Each image is a link to the resource it features.

My Shared Bookmarks

I maintain an ever growing list of bookmarks about a variety of topics that many educators may find of interest. Included are tools, tricks, how-tos, example sites... just a variety of things that strike me as interesting and/or helpful as I routinely surf the web.

These bookmarks are grouped into over 40 lists. The two largest groups are Examples (by grade level and subject area) and Tools (for a variety of web-based work). Check out the lists, and if you find them helpful, follow me on diigo. It's a free service that can turn your collection of bookmarks into a research tool. Diigo also has a specific free plan for educators, one that would be a valuable tool for classroom student collaborative projects.

Follow Me on Twitter

I use Twitter to notify people who follow me of new blog posts I've just written. I also share videos I find of interest on YouTube, and bookmarks on Diigo, etc. Twitter has become just a convenient way to quickly share things that catch your attention.

Additionally, with tools like TweetDeck, Twitter becomes a very powerful search engine for current information and resources. You can also use Twitter to direct message me if you like. I've found increased value in using Twitter to connect and share with educators around the world.

My Shared RSS Feeds

This is a link to all of the current posts from all of the education blogs I subscribe to in Google Reader. It's a fairly large group from almost 100 education bloggers.

There's even an RSS feed button near the top right of each page, called an "Atom Feed." After setting up your own free Google Reader account, you could subscribe to this one RSS feed of all of these bloggers in one click! This will give you a good start with your RSS feeds—a nice collection of education blogs to follow.

Feedback

I know things can be very hectic at a conference, even for presenters! Sometimes I don't think to mention how to provide me with feedback, which I use to inform my professional practice. So below is a way you can provide me with feedback about the presentation content, presentation style, resources provided, just anything that's on your mind.

• You can send me a text message. [This is another great way to use PollEverywhere, which I may have demonstrated in one of the sessions you attended.] Simply text 46874 followed by a space and then your text message to: 99503.

I appreciate your helping me better help educators!

Movie Links

I also have many requests for links to the movies I show in my presentations. As I show many different movies every time I present, let me recommend these, listed below, that are probably the most common ones I show. All of these projects were made by the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Mabry Middle School.

The movie files are all 2 minutes or less, range from 16 to 38 megabytes, but should start playing almost immediately. However, download times will vary depending on your connection speed. You may need to be patient!

Numerous (hundreds) excellent movie projects abound both on MabryOnline.org at this link and on the iTunes Store at this link. As we got further into the online publishing process we typically grouped the movies into categories rather than singling out individual projects. This was generally done because of the time constraints of running school. Putting individual movies up on the web required more time than just converting, for online publication, the same files used the night of the film festival.

PollEverywhere

I probably mentioned Poll Everywhere, an excellent tool for educators that are comfortable allowing student use of cell phones in school (with parent permission). If I didn't mention it in the sessions you attended, you might want to explore it here. Below are a couple of polls embedded on this page. You can embed PollEverywhere polls into your classroom and parent presentations for realtime feedback as well as on web pages or blogs.

We may not have actually used these two polls, but I wanted you to see different ways of using this technology. If the polls are still open you can actually vote from here (by clicking on your desired answer below or texting in your answer, or visiting the web address listed, or tweeting in your response) as well as see the results. The results will change over time as I reset them for different groups.

You can also choose to just embed a results graphic which does not permit voting from the site or by SMS.

Below is the final data that came in from your conference: The percentage of people who sent in an answer that have 1 or more iPods of iPhones is a whopping 87%! I do hope your district will explore using these devices as a way to distribute staff development. (Click on the picture below to open a larger one that's easier to see.)

Questions & Ideas

I was delighted to see how many people were actively participating in our time together by sending in your questions (through PollEverywhere) so we could extend the conversation beyond our very limited time together. I'm quick to say that I personally have more questions than I have answers. So I'm offering up a lot of ideas here in response to your questions. Remember, these are just ideas from the world according to Tim. :o)

• how much does it cost a district to buy Camtasia?  I never keep up with pricing plans as they change so often. But, as you will see from the link, they have volume discounts. Do they have discounts for school districts? You can contact them directly for current pricing information.


• is there an elem school like mabry doing global distribution?  Check out my "Examples: Elementary Schools" list of links on Diigo. (You will see the large graphic link near the top of this page.) Also, don't forget to search on Twitter for elementary educators. You will find numerous examples of astounding work all over the world.


• advice or best tool for using tech w/ kdg. windows platform.  Everything I shared with you today can be done using Windows. Again, I would encourage you to check out the examples in my Diigo list and find kindergarten teachers all around the world doing this. You simply adapt the implementation of the tools to the level of your students.


• What are some good examples of ways to use technology with first graders?  Same answer as above.


• what about kids that dont have cell phones?  I encourage you not to get hung up on any one tool. Start by doing a technology survey. (I include a simple example above.) Gain the data on what your students have, what you have, what your policies will permit. Then create a plan informed by that data. Use the tools that make the most sense for the students you have.


• Being a student teacher, what is the best way to incorporate technology in my classroom?  So many variables will be at play. I suggest you share your enthusiasm to use these tools with your supervising teacher and work together to explore a new vision for instructional practice together.


• does all this work with blackberries or just iphones?  Every device has strengths and limitations. At the present time, I think you will find more apps available for the iPhone than any other smart phone. You will want to explore what is available for your device. When it's time to replace your device, explore what your options are at that time and which device will afford you with the greatest capabilities.


• What if our students do not have access to any sort of technology at home?  I suspect that virtually every school will have at least one student who doesn't have some type of access at home. I look at it like this: we have students who we know are not going to do their homework at home, but we assign it anyway for those that will do it and benefit from it.
  
  Is there a particular percentage of students without access that would cause you not to pursue this for all of the other students with access? This is a personal decision you have to make. It's an easy decision for me. But you have to make it for you.
  
  But I know you want to explore options for those that don't have access. Don't forget the public libraries. And many parents will have access at work. We opened our school resources for a period of time after school. I've worked with schools who serve Indian reservations without electricity. iPods can hold a charge over night, and that was the strategy they used--sending home instructional content. But again, I'm sure you will want to start with data and not assumptions. Do a technology survey. As I shared in my time with you, this is not always intuitive.


• how can this be used at the elementary level?  See answer above.

The 2010 Digital You: Your Homework Assignment

I've been pondering ways to be as effective as possible using digital tools as an educator. I frequently am asked, "So, what should we do next?" I love when educators ask for homework! :o) This isn't an easy question, really, as I find an enormous range of prior knowledge and skills among the people with whom I work.

But, since I get the question so often, I feel compelled to at least try to present some ideas for your consideration. Look over the list. Feel free to give me your feedback so I can adapt the document to make it as useful for educators as possible.

[It's not ready yet. I'm working on it and hope to have it here in a day or two.]




Ideas for Student/Parent Technology Questionnaire

You may want to survey your students and their parents about the types of technology they have. This information will assist you in deciding how to design content for your web presence or digital learning hub. The document below provides some ideas about where to start.




Tools I Use

Below is a list of tools I may have used during our time together. Since I get a lot of questions about these, I'm including the information here for your use.

• I typically use Keynote to do the presentations themselves. And I often control Keynote with one of several applications on my iPhone. These applications are downloaded through the iTunes Store and will work on the iPod Touch as well as the iPhone. iTunes will run on a Windows machine and comes automatically installed on every Mac. ( iTunes U and iTunes K-12 are rich sources of information and resources for schools and educators.) You can find detailed information about Keynote and the iPhone applications I use to control Keynote in this post on my blog.
• You may also have attended a session in which I mentioned CoolIris as the presentation tool. In fact, one of the links in the presentations section below is to a CoolIris version of the presentation: Leadership Applied: Building Powerful Learning Communities. CoolIris is not for the faint of heart. If you want to design presentations with it, you must be comfortable editing a media.rss file, which is written in XML, a very unforgiving programming language. For more information about using CoolIris as a presentation platform, take a look at this post on my blog.
• The blogging system used for MabryOnline.org and for drTimTyson.com is MovableType. For more information about that implementation, you can consult this blog post on the MabryOnline website that covers answers to many frequently asked questions about the work we were doing at Mabry Middle School. Additionally, WordPress is also very powerful!
• The application I use to record presentations is ScreenFlow for the Mac. A number of screen capture utilities are available, but, as of this writing, I believe ScreenFlow to be the most elegant implementation of screen capture you can find on the Mac. Not only can it be used effortlessly and quickly, with just a few more minutes, you can make your screen casts look awesome. Exporting the finished screen cast is also incredibly easy: choose a preset and walk away from your computer while it generates the finished project for uploading. If you're interested in purchasing ScreenFlow, be sure to inquire about the education discount. A similar, slightly more expensive tool is available for Windows and Mac users: Camtasia. Camtasia has additional capability; but, as these are competing products, they will probably compete against one another by advancing their feature sets.
• I also frequently use my iPod and a mic attachment (be sure you purchase one that is specifically designed to work with your exact iPod model) to record an audio only podcast of the presentation. You may also use your iPhone and iPod Touch to record podcasts. For more information on using the iPhone and iPod Touch to record podcasts, watch this podcast I produced on the subject.
• I also probably mentioned using uStream.tv to broadcast and record from the computer. As of this writing the service is free. Other similar services are also available.
• I probably used the xTag USB wireless mic from revolabs to record the screencasts in this post. I have written a review about this little mic after learning about it from Dr. Andy Brovey.

Many other tools could be listed here, but this is probably more than you have time to explore if you're not already familiar with them.




Presentation Resources

An Irresistible Vision of Global Contribution





Concluding Thoughts

I have observed over the years that educators tend to be overachievers! You will want to do everything you learned in our time together, and more, before the end of the week. Life just doesn't happen like that! I remind you that the student and staff work I shared with you in our time together was the product of 6 years of focused work. Pace yourself!

That said, don't tolerate low quality work from students or yourself. We all have to live that culture of personal best. Don't let students get their hands on the tools until they have done the required thinking work that earns them that privilege! Too often, once students start working with the tools, they want to focus on the tools. Your job as the educator is to keep them always focused on your learning objectives.

I do hope that our time together was helpful for you! I hope it renewed your joy and passion for making learning irresistible for your students. When your students (and you) begin to accomplish really exciting things, drop me an email with a link so I can include it in my Diigo links.




I wish you only the very, very best!

Tim