Digital Learning Today

Jeff sits down with Sam Patterson, Jenny Grabec and Casy Cohen to discuss 1:1 education. Topics include starting 1:1, implementing 1:1, and community involvement with 1:1.

• Going 1:1
• Choosing the right tech for 1:1
• Preparing the buildings and classrooms for 1:1
• How to Go 1:1
• Getting your Teachers to go 1:1
• 1:1 Lessons and Lesson Plans
• Does 1:1 mean 100% Tech?
• Resources online for 1:1 deployment
• Community involvement with 1:1

Jenny Grabec

As Director of Instructional Technology at a K-12 independent school, Jenny has the privilege of leading a one-to-one iPad/Mac rollout with students, faculty and staff. The students at her current school have average to above average intelligence and have been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities; primarily dysgraphia, dyslexia, language processing, executive function deficits, and/or attention deficit disorder. Jenny also led the first one-to-one iPad pilot in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in a middle school and high school classroom of ESL newcomers back in 2011, when the iPad 2 was first released. Jenny is an Apple Distinguished Educator and CEO of Tech Girl Savvy, LLC. Jenny Grabiec

Casy Cohen

Casey Cohen is an English teacher at Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School (PPACS), an Apple Distinguished, 1:1, paperless school where each student’s primary learning tool is an iPad. She is a lead curriculum writer for the high school English courses. Casey’s curriculum work is based on project-based inquiry learning that supports the Common Core and allows students the freedom to explore and discover their passions and purposes as they take ownership in their learning. Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School courses are published and can be found in the String Theory Schools collection on iTunes U.

Casey received her B.A. at the University of Michigan, where she studied English, history, and theater in Michigan's Residential College. She received her Ed.M. at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, where she studied English and secondary education in HGSE's Teacher Education Program. Currently, she is earning her Principal Certification at the University of Pennsylvania where she is participating in the School Leadership Program.

Casey is certified in English, social studies, and communications grades 7-12 in PA. She has taught a combination of middle and high school English for eight years. Outside the classroom, Casey has been a theater director, stage manager, track coach, and sponsor for various clubs and activities. At PPACS she organizes a Poetry Out Loud contest and supports the Speech and Debate, Homework, and Yearbook clubs.

Sam Patterson, M.F.A. Ed.D.

Poet, Writer, blogger, teacher of students: Sam has taught in independent Jewish schools for the last 12 years in the subject of English, writing, darkroom photography, algebra, algebra 2, and pre-calc and he currently teaches K-5 technology. Sam is an innovator on campus and he uses his blog to reach out to his campus environment and to reach beyond into the community of connected educators. There are many things that edtech can do, Sam looks at the pedagogical opportunities and helps teachers find the best tool for the job.

Recorded 2014

Jeff sits down with Mark Johnson from StudioTech.tv to discuss how your school can assemble a high-quality broadcasting studio.

StudioTech TV provides industry news, reviews and information for individuals and companies producing audio and video, especially for the internet.

• http://www.studiotech.tv
• Europe: Mark Johnson – [email protected] Twitter – @ttfntv
• North America: Vance Willis – [email protected] Twitter – @vancewillis

• About TTFN.tv and StudioTech
• Should we get into video production as a hobby?
• What should the average person look for in-studio equipment?
• What should a school district look for when selecting studio equipment?
• Is there ever a good way to Future-Proof our studios?
• Greenscreen vs Whitescreen vs Blackscreen
• Broadcasting on a budget
• Live Reads from the Principals Office

Mark Johnson – StudioTech.tv

Jeff sits down with Jerry Blumengarten and Brad Currie to discuss how educators are using Twitter to connect with each other. This podcast was originally recorded in December 2012.

• Twitter
• Social Media in the Classroom
• Using Twitter Hashtags to your advantage
• Finding the right Twitter Chat
• Student Involvement in Social Media
• Twitter for Students
• FInding the right technology for the classroom
• Planning for the future

Brad Currie is the Dean of Students and Supervisor of Instruction for the Chester School District in Chester, NJ. He is also the co-founder and co-moderator of #Satchat, a weekly Twitter discussion for current and emerging school leaders. Brad is a firm believer in the power of social media as a means to bring all educators together in order to promote the success of all students.

Jerry Blumengarten: I was a Middle School teacher who taught for 32 years in the New York City school system. I was a licensed Social Studies teacher who also taught Language Arts, Science, Math, Computers.. My last 12 years I served as teacher-librarian.  I wrote curriculum for my school district, the NYC Board of Education and Open Doors a school-business partnership.

All About Cybrary Man http://www.cybraryman.com/cybrary_man.html

Recorded in 2015

Jeff sits down with Dustin Hartzler to talk about WordPress. WordPress is a free website creation tool where teachers can set up a dynamic and engaging class website.

• What is WordPress?
• WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
• Finding Server space
• Setting up a Social Networking site using BuddyPress
• Why is WordPress Easy to setup and get Started?
• Favorite Plugins for WordPress

• Your Website Engineer
• YourWebsiteEngineerPodcast
• WordPress.com
• WordPress.org

Dustin Hartzler is a full-time WordPress website developer who focuses on helping small business create great looking, easy to maintain website. Dustin works for his own company, Hartzler Digital Media (http://HartzlerDM.com), in Dayton Ohio.

Along with developing websites for a living, Dustin also produces the most popular WordPress podcast on iTunes, Your Website Engineer (http://yourwebsiteengineer.com). On the podcast Dustin shares the things that he is learning to help others take their WordPress sites to the next level. He also fields listeners questions on this weekly produced show. Each show has a focused topic that the audience can put in to play each week.

Recorded in 2012

Jeff sits down with Patrick Larkin from Burlington High School and Jessica Johnson to discuss how they use iPads and technology in their schools.

• Starting the school year off with a bang… How to prepare for the new semester
• What are todays expectations for our students? Graduates? Teachers? Schools? Administrators?
• Using Social Media in our schools and classrooms
• Should Teachers blog/tweet?, Should Schools blog/tweet?
• How can schools develop safe methods for using Social Media in the classroom
• How to use todays technology to communicate with parents
• How to teach todays parents about what their kids are learning
• Safe ways to continue educating after the bell has rung
• How to make the most use of our iPad….. How to use the iPad to maximize productivity in yourself… and in your staff
• How to run a class… or school using an iPad and what apps to choose
• Personal Learning Networks
• Creating a 1:1 environment for our schools

• Splashtop Remote
• ScreenChomp
• Evernote
• Google Apps
• Flipboard
• Blogger

Jessica Johnson is the Elementary Principal for the Dodgeland School District in Juneau, Wisconsin. She has previously served as a teacher, instructional coach, and Assistant Principal in Minnesota and Arizona. When she made the move from a large urban Phoenix school district to rural Wisconsin she found the isolation of the administrative role to be like an island. She was fortunate enough to discover twitter and continue to learn from others in her Professional Learning Network, which continues to grow each day. She has begun presenting the power of twitter to educators/administrators at conferences in Wisconsin (along with other Wisconsin principals she found on twitter).

In addition she is a co-moderator for the #educoach chat on twitter. You can find her on twitter as @PrincipalJ or follow her blog at www.PrincipalJ.blogspot.com.

Patrick Larkin is the Principal of Burlington High School in Massachusetts where he is in his 14th year as a high school administrator and seventh as a building Principal. Prior to serving as a school administrator, Patrick was a high school English teacher. As an Assistant Principal, Patrick was named Assistant Principal of the Year in the state of Massachusetts. He also is a former Executive Board member in the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Administrators Association (MSSAA) and he recently completed a two year term as a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Public Secondary Schools.

Patrick’s school will be making the transition to a 1:1 environment for the 2011-2012 school year. He is active presenting to colleagues on the power of social media for administrators, teachers, and students. In addition, he is an avid blogger and a proponent of social media to better engage teachers, students, and parents in the education process. Patrick is one of the founders of theConnected Principals Blog and #cpchat on Twitter. He is one of the authors of the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators, an avid blogger and a proponent of social media to better engage teachers, students, and parents in the education process.

Both Burlington High School and Patrick have been highlighted in national and regional publications during Patrick’s tenure at BHS.

• T.H.E. Journal – When Students Run The Help Desk
• Fox 25 Boston Checks Out Our iPad Deployment
• USA Today – Students Cast Wide Net For Mentoring With PLN's
• Edutopia – How My School Is Transitioning to Digital Textbooks (Organizing: Step 1 of 5)
• Edutopia – A Web 2.0 Class: Students Learn 21st Century Skills, Collaboration, Digital Citizenship
• Converge Magazine – Principals Learn Through Social Media
• Converge Magazine – Four Ways To Transform Your School Culture 
• T.H.E. Journal – Tweets For Teachers
• Boston Globe – Laptop Learning

“I have learned more from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) in less than two years than I did in my previous decade in education,” says Larkin. “This is the most exciting time in history to be involved in education and I am enjoying every minute of it!

Patrick is a graduate of Assumption College and he received his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Framingham State College.

You can find Patrick's blog here.

Recorded in 2011

Jeff sits down with Jason Glass, the Director of Education from Iowa to discuss the state of education and how teachers can prepare students for their futures.

• The State of Education
• Describe our countries educational system today
• What are some of your favorite things to do as Director of the Department of Education
• Are teachers, schools, school districts ready to embrace today's technology?
• Working within a shrinking budget
• How schools are meeting the needs of our students today
• What technologies should we be embracing? Leaning away from?
• Should Technology be driven by the students, or by the teachers? (or by the community?)
• At what age should students be learning social technologies… and how?
• Should we be teaching “basic skills” in school? (long division, cursive, etc…)

• Twitter
• Evernote

Governor Terry Branstad appointed Dr. Jason Glass as the director of the Iowa Department of Education on December 29, 2010. He was confirmed by the Iowa Senate on April 11, 2011.

Director Glass has pledged that the Department of Education will focus on the values of demonstrating courageous leadership, promoting innovation in education, and acting as a servant to schools and communities in Iowa.

As Director, he works with the Governor, legislators, the State Board of Education, and people across the state in supporting efforts and initiatives to restore Iowa’s tradition as a national leader in education and to lead transformative change.

Born and raised in a family of educators, and married to a teacher, Director Glass’s career in education spans more than 15 years where he has worked in a variety of roles and diverse settings.

After teaching at the high school and university levels in Kentucky, Director Glass worked for the Colorado Department of Education in ensuring a quality education for students with disabilities. Director Glass served as vice president of Qualistar Early Learning in Denver, Colorado where he helped develop an early childhood education quality rating system and raised funds to help providers make needed improvements. He was the Director of Human Resources for Eagle County Schools in Colorado, a pioneering district in innovative human resources strategies including performance-based compensation.

In 2010, Director Glass joined Battelle for Kids as Senior Director of Human Capital, providing states and districts counsel in implementing transformational change as part of the federal Race to the Top program in Tennessee and Ohio.

Director Glass is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he received a Bachelor’s degree and two Master’s degrees, and holds a Doctorate in Education from Seton Hall University.

Jeff sits down with Steven Anderson and Eric Sheninger to discuss how they are educating a generation of digital learners.

• What are we looking forward to as the new school year approaches?
• How are we getting ready for school differently this year as opposed to in years past?
• Suggestions for starting our students on the right track this year?
• Empowering Integration
• How should technology be introduced into our classrooms?
• How can we help our teachers learn about these technologies?
• What types of PD should we be giving our teachers.
• What types of technology should be introduced into our classrooms? (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogs, Wiki's, Podcasts, iPads, iPhones, internet devices)
• What types of accounts should we be asking our students to have? (twitter, dropbox, google…etc..)
• Internet Safety and Security…. Keeping students, teachers and school districts safe
• Should teachers use more Google in the classroom?
• How should we be inviting our students to share files between home and school?
• Having phones in school vs having iPads in schools (both students and teachers)
• Encouraging our students to help teachers prepare for lessons…. (finding topics online and submitting them for research materials…. livebinder activities)
• Are we as teachers preparing our students for the current future or the future yet to come?
• How are schools using and managing table devices and app purchases

• Poll Everywhere
• Text Message (SMS) Polls and Voting, Audience Response System
• Edmodo
• Secure Social Learning Network for Teachers and Students
• Wordle
• Beautiful Word Clouds
• Blogger
• Moodle
• open-source community-based tools for learning
• Ning
• Create a Social Networking Site with Ning, the Best Social Site Platform
• Twitter
• PD 360
• The world’s first and largest online, on-demand professional development platform for educators.
• SimpleK12
• Educational Technology Made Simple
• Atomic Learning 
• Education: Professional Development, Technology Integration and Software Training and Support Solutions – Atomic Learning
• Teachscape: K12
• Effective Teaching | Teaching Strategies | School Performance | School Improvement | Student Achievement
• Groupboard
• Evernote
• Remember Everything
• Dropbox 
• Cloudbased File Storage
• Diigo
• Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, Online Bookmarking and Annotation, Personal Learning Network.
• Delicious
• Online Bookmarks
• http://twitterrific.com/
• Twitter Client
• Feeddler
• RSS Reader for iPad and iPhone
• Documents To Go®
• Office Suite

Jeff sits down with Barbara and Tina, the creators of LiveBinders to disgust this revolutionary free web tool that is sweeping the educational universe.

• What is LiveBinders?
• How do LiveBinders work?
• Creating an account
• Bookmarking your LiveBinder account
• Keeping your LiveBinder organized
• Sharing your LiveBinder
• Following other LiveBinders
• Helpful Tutorials
• Why should teachers be using LiveBinders?
• How should teachers be using LiveBinders?
• What types of resources can be found on LiveBinders?”
• How can students use LiveBinders?
• How to add things to your live binder
• Integrating your live binders with your social networks
• Taking LiveBinders with you on the road
• The Future of LiveBinders

• LiveBinders

Barbara Tallent has a real passion for creating products that customers love and products that help them communicate. With over 25 years in the Information Technology Industry, Barbara was President/CEO of BoldFish (email marketing software), which she sold to Siebel Systems (now Oracle) She has held executive positions at a number of Internet startup companies and spent six years with NCD, eventually running the Z-Mail division which was one of the first internet email clients.

She volunteers at her local schools where she focuses on technology integration and support. She also volunteers for Astia (Formerly Women's Technology Cluster) where she coaches women on business planning for their start-ups.

Tina Schneider is passionate about creating technology that connects people and ideas; her mission is to enhance digital communication through new forms of narrative. As an MFA graduate student at SF State she applied art theory practice to digital mediums. Tina continued to develop that perspective as in intern at Xerox PARC and then as software researcher with FX Palo Alto Laboratory.  In 2003 she received the prestigious Fuji Xerox Innovative Technology Award for her work addressing the communication behaviors of digital natives.  Today Tina is focusing her attention on educators, providing a platform that empowers them and their students to be knowledge leaders.

Jeff sits down with Apple Distinguished Educator Kelly Croy, the “Wired Educator” to learn how he uses technology in his classroom.

TeacherCast had the pleasure and opportunity to sit down with Kelly Croy, a middle school English teacher, and Apple Distinguished Educator. We discussed several ways for teachers to be more dynamic in the classroom and how we can foster our students to create a place for themselves in this evolving digital world. Kelly told us about the many ways that he uses websites, podcasts, and Twitter to communicate with parents and make learning fun. Kelly is a fantastic educator and also a performance artist. Kelly can be found online at www.KellyCroy.com

• Leading students through the development of technologies
• “The Adventure of Learning”
• Teaching your students to flip every button on the ship
• Helping our students content go viral
• Teaching Blogs/Essay writing
• Empowering our students to be individuals
• In what ways do you see our schools preparing students to be achievers and leaders?
• What are some fun games or conversation starters we can use our iPads for?
• What apps have teachers or educators shown you that you have been passing around to your friends?
• What is an Apple Distinguished Educator? How do you become one?
• Discussion about Kelly's time as a guest speaker and performance arts.
• Importance of Eagle Scout award

• Silent Movie Director
• Make silent films with your iPhone/iPad
• Edmodo

Kelly Croy is a seventh grade English teacher at Oak Harbor Middle School in Ohio. He team teaches in a Challenge Based Learning environment that uses technology in unique and meaningful ways. His students are one to one with MacBooks and they are steadily implementing iPads into the classroom. Kelly is the founder and senior writer for Wired Educator a website dedicated to helping teachers explore exciting technologies in their classrooms. Kelly was honored by Apple in 2011 as an Apple Distinguished Educator and is working with ADEs to create content for iTunes University. Kelly also travels as a speaker and speaker and performance artist, inspiring thousands of students and adults with his unique presentations. He lives with five women. (HIs wife and four daughters.) Kelly is excited about the role technology plays in the upcoming educational revolution.

• www.kellycroy.comwww.pblquest.com
• www.mrcroy.com
• www.wirededucator.com

Recorded Fall 2011

Jeff sits down with Christopher Hoovler from CleverIOSApps.com and Cary Fields to discuss their favorite apps to use in the classroom.

Topics Covered:

• What are the new technologies we will be introducing to our students this year?
• What technologies should we be promoting as teachers?
• Should we be teaching cursive in school?
• Should we ask our students to sign up for social media/file sharing sites the same way we ask them to go buy a pencil?
• Social Media in Education (Skype, Twitter, Google+ etc…)
• How do we as teachers demonstrate internet safety
• Using blogs, wiki's in the class
• Should we fear technology for privacy reasons?
• Using your iPhone in school vs using your iPad in class

• Keynote and Remote
• Presentations on the Mac with a really amazing wireless remote that works on all Mac platforms
• iHourglass
• Digital hourglass
• Bento
• Personal Organizer and Filing System
• Dropvox
• Record your voice and it automatically sends the file to your Dropbox account
• Mailing Desk
• View Gmail and access your GoogleDocs
• Skype
• Video and Audio conferencing over the internet
• Music Podium
• PDF Reader and Annotator
• CameraSync
• Syncs your entire photo library with your iDisk or Dropbox
• PhotoBooth
• Create simple videos that can be used for podcasts or online distribution.
• CJournal
• Helps teachers organize the times they speak with a student, or contact a parent
• Grammar App
• 1800 Grammar Questions
• iteleport
• View your home computer from anywhere in the world
• iBanner
• Garageband
• Record Music
• Teachers Assisstant PRo
• Behavior Tracking on the iPad and iPhone
• Puppet Pals HD
• Make puppet shows from your own photos
• Airport Express
• Create a wireless stream of music from your iPod to a set of speakers
• Roadshow
• Search and download educational videos
• Evernote
• Record and take notes
• Planbook
• Online Lesson Planner
• Random
• Number Generator
• Clear Tune
• Free Chromatic Tuner
• Soundhound
• Hum a tune and it figures it out for you

Cary Fields is a teacher at Castle Dome Middle School in Yuma AZ. This year marks her 13th year teaching. She is a Jr. High English teacher, AVID teacher, and AVID site coordinator.

Cary has been using technology in her classroom for nearly as long as she has been teaching. Currently, she uses Promethean software and clickers in her classroom. Students enjoy the interactive nature of these devices and are more receptive to the curriculum.

She also loves using her iPad2 in combination with a document camera to engage students. Cary strongly believes that students need to be taught differently than we were taught simply because their technical skill set is so vastly different than what we had at their age.

Christopher Hoovler has been teaching instrumental music in Virginia for 14 years.  He earned his undergraduate degree in music education from James Madison University and his master’s degree in music education from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Chris taught at the high school level for seven years and then took a brief step into the corporate world which only lasted six months before he realized teaching music was a lifelong passion.  Chris re-entered the teaching profession in 2005 as a middle school band director and has not looked back.  Accolades include numerous superior ratings at state assessment, as well as a three-time “Virginia Blue Ribbon School of Music” recipient, which is the highest honor in Virginia for a music program.  Chris is known in his building as the “tech guy” and uses technology extensively in his classroom.  Chris has also developed several apps for Apple’s iPad and iPhone including Teacher’s Assistant Pro.

Recorded September 2011