Hoot Hoot, Tweet Tweet!

I recently went through a revamp of how I live my online life from email to twitter.  This post will be dedicated to my switch from TweetDeck to Hootsuite.

Upon announcing to Twitter that I was trying a new nest with Hootsuite, I got the question of why?  Honestly, I don't have any reason why I am tired of Tweetdeck.  It's a great platform.  It does seem to have a ridiculous amount of updates though.  If I had to give one reason why I wanted something new, it would be that I just wanted something new.  I get tired of looking at the same thing on my screen every day and for whatever reason, I was done with Tweetdeck.  I also heard of a lot of friends moving over to Hootsuite and I was curious.

Hootsuite is entirely web-based so there isn't a client like Tweetdeck.  At first I wasn't so sure about this because I get annoyed by having an endless amount of tabs open in my browser (Google Chrome).  I got over that pretty quick though (it brought on some changes in other areas that I mentioned above which may appear in a blog post later).

Overall, the positives of Hootsuite are:

• I like the show conversation button in each tweet that breaks down the conversation of @replies over a course of time right in the window of the stream.
• I also like that there is an upgrade for google analytics to monitor my stats for an additional 5.99 per month.  Personally, I don't use this feature as I don't much care at this point what my stats are and I can use twittercounter if I really need to know, but it is a cool feature to have in my opinion.  
• I like the sound it makes when a new tweet comes in.  I got a little sick of the sound of Tweetdeck (as did everyone around me).  
• It seems like things are better organized.  When you click on a person's name it opens a window on top of your feed rather than in a new column like Tweetdeck does.  I prefer that because I can still see what is going on.  Profile glances also seem more detailed.  It just seems easier to find things compared to Tweetdeck.  
• Updates are done without downloads and reinstalls.  THANK YOU!!
• It's very easy to add additional accounts like Facebook, etc.
• Managing twitter lists seems way easier to me.  Faster to add/delete tweeps as needed.
• You can download a browser extension which helps you easily post weblinks to Twitter.
• When you're inactive for an hour, a cute little sleeping owl comes up and asks if you want to wake up. (yeah...corny, but I like corny stuff)

The negatives, in my opinion are:

• The tab keeps flashing that I have new tweets which is growing annoying. There may be an option to fix it but I haven't found that yet. 
• The preferences are lacking. I think they could offer more options for customization.  
• The biggest downfall is that I can't hit enter after typing a tweet, I have to click on the submit button.  That's highly annoying but I'm trying to deal with it.  
• You can't multiple @reply...meaning I can't click on a bunch of people in my @column to reply to them at one time. I either have to do them individually or type each name in.  Very annoying.  

I would recommend you to take a peek and decide for yourself.  For me, those multiple @ replies and submit button are two things that might get too annoying but I like the ease of use of everything else so much, I just might stick with it for a while.  Hopefully Hootsuite is paying attention and will do an upgrade to accomodate my needs.  

Exploration in Design

I have an opportunity to get back into something I've always enjoyed: Design.  Since I was first introduced to a computer, I've played around with making flyers, invitations, etc but lately haven't had an opportunity to play around with design as much as I'd like.  I feel like I'm starting over so I wanted to go out and see what kinds of software are available for doing some of these projects.  A quick post to twitter yielded three tools:  InDesign, Pages and Scribus.


InDesign by Adobe was the first program I tried because I knew I wanted something good and this was highly recommended by my twitter pals.  In my case, money wasn't too big of a deal, especially when I can get an educator discount on this one for 198.95 over at Academic Superstore (you have to prove you're an educator/student).  My first noticeable issue with this one is the install.  It took me about an hour to complete the download/install of the 30 day trial.  The program is definitely intensive, probably more than I need for what I'm doing but it does allow you to do a lot with design. I stared blankly for a while at the interface, figuring out quickly that I had no idea what some of the buttons did nor did I know what some of the words on the buttons meant.

This is definitely software for someone that knows a little more about design than I do.  Overall, I can see it's a great tool, but I think it may be more of one than little ol' me needs.  I felt like completing a simple task such as coloring in a circle took more knowledge than I wanted to put into it.  In the end I decided I'm still a teacher, not a professional designer and this is probably not the tool I need yet.
Check out this screenshot to see the available options and layout.

Pages is a no-brainer to at least try if you work with a Mac.  I hadn't used it in a while so diving back into it was a fairly new process for me.  I noticed the price of 19.99 for this program in the Apple App Store so the price is great.  On first glance, this program like all apple products, is easy on the eyes.  The look and feel draws you in and makes it easy to use.  In the end, however, I had some issues with shapes.  Unless I'm missing something, it just dumps the shape in the center of the page.  It took me a while to figure this out and after working with it for some time, it got to be kind of annoying.  That being said, however, if you're not getting deep into designing your own stuff, the templates are fantastic and easy to add your own information.  For what I want to do right now, I want something a little more intense so pages will probably not be my pick. 

Scribus was recommended to me as a free, open source software and silly me, thinking it would not be that great, put it off to look at last.  I was pleasantly surprised by download/install time and ease of use once I got in the program.  There were a few things I couldn't figure out on first glance, but for the most part, this program will do about everything you need it to do and it's pretty easy to use.  Most options are in a right click menu and properties show in a separate popup window.  Take a look at the basic layout of scribus noting the properties popup on the left:

When it was all said and done, the program I least expected to like might just be the program I use: Scribus.  The only thing I don't like about it is the ease of use/integration of media that all apple products have, but the photos I'll be adding arent' necessarily ones that I would want/need in my iPhoto library so I think it will be ok.  I really like the properties box in Scribus and I think the overall layout of the program works the best with the way I think and work. 

Thanks Gerlos for sharing your photo!

Coffee with a Nerd

Today was my first "Coffee with a Nerd" experience with my teachers.  The experience lasts 10 minutes and involves showing a quick tidbit of information that will help teachers complete a simple task on their computers.  The idea came from a noticeable lack of basic computer knowledge amongst my staff. They were able to complete most tasks but they weren't doing them very efficiently or they felt that completing the tasks was more of a pain than they really needed to be. I also know that, in an elementary school, time is always an issue and most teachers don't want to sit through an hour of basic training.  They typically want one or two things to take back and practice, otherwise they feel overwhelmed.

Our first session was on bookmarking.  I chose this because many teachers were having trouble remembering the address to the computer lab calendar or to the school website.  One teacher even told me that she googles the school website every morning to find it.  After I sent the email about the first session, I received several replies from teachers saying they were excited so I knew I'd have at least a few stop by this morning. Everyone showed up right on time at 7:50 with coffee cups in hand.  They enjoyed their brew while I quickly showed them how to create a bookmark, how to organize the bookmarks and how to delete them.

Overall, I think it was a success!   By the time I finished, there were about ten people in the lab and even a couple of students stopped at the door and listened.  I had several of the teachers let me know they really enjoyed it and one even asked if I was going to do it every week.  My plan was to do it once a month to start, just to see how things went but I might shake it up and do it every Thursday.  I'm even considering some kind of nerdy coffee cup prize to give out to those who participate.   We'll see how crafty I get.

One other good thing that came from it is that there were more questions asked like:

1.  How do I right click on a mac?
2.  How do I set a homepage in my browser?
3.  What are tabs and why would I use them?

Sounds like sessions for the next 3 weeks to me!

What's the QRuestion?

I've been hearing about QR code for some time now and it hasn't really stuck in my brain as something great for education.  I was looking at it as "fluff" and not necessary.  I suppose it still is "fluff" but I got a hard lesson in why it's cool over the weekend.

It all started last weekend when I saw a QR code on a refrigerator price tag at Best Buy.  I was with my newest daughter, a 7 year old that soaks up every bit of knowledge put in front of her.  I showed it to her, quickly downloaded the QR code to my phone and took a picture.  "WOW!" was the reaction I got from her as all the information about that refrigerator showed up on my phone.  This was my first time doing this as well, so I was kinda like WOW myself and I thought "what a great shopping tool!"

The next day, she asked me where else she could find QR code and if I could put that reader on her iPod.  I explained that if she looks around stores, she'll see more of them and I thought to myself I'd have to look a little more closely so we could read codes when I saw her again.  This morning, upon finding a code on a blog, I remembered it was easy to create my own, so I looked up what she is learning in school this week and made a few text based questions using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Here is one: a math problem for counting money.


If you don't have access to a QR reader at the moment, It says:

You found the secret Money code!
While Olivia was cleaning, she found 1 quarter under the chair.  Then, she found 1 dime and 2 nickels in the couch cushions.  Finally, she found 1 dollar while folding Rusty's clothes!  How much money did she find?

My plan is to place several of these around the house for her to find.  I will be making codes for all of the subjects she's learning right now in school.

Of course, my mind is running wild and now I want iPods pretty bad at my school so I can do some of these activities with the children here.

As a note, I downloaded the Welt Kompakt QR code reader on my iPhone and found that it wasn't so great at picking up the codes.  I then found the QR code reader for iPhone by TapMedia and have had better success with it.

Hey Mom! I got a badge in Math today!!

I recently returned from a trip to the wonderful city of Philadelphia for a fantastic little conference called Educon.  While I was there, I attended a session on standards based grading.  While in the session, I didn't feel as if I was getting much from it (I actually left early to go to a different session), but the value in it came a day later when checking into foursquare at a Philly restaurant.  I thought to myself, "this is what grading should be like" and with a quick tweet I discovered that many others agreed.  I promised a blog with my thoughts and here it is.

What I'm thinking is that students could "check in" to standards.  The teacher, of course, would set up the standards and what tasks he/she wanted the students to complete in order to receive the "badge" for that standard.  Quite possibly for each standard check-in, the student could write a reflection on what they learned about that standard and/or upload attachments to receive the badge.  The teacher could then go in and check what the student has submitted, comment on their information and award them the badge.  Students would continue work until all badges were achieved.

What I like about this is that students in this method could potentially learn at their own pace. They could pick which standards they wanted to achieve, make a timeline for achieving it and learn at their own discretion in the way they learn best.  You could have lots of badges for standards and maybe additional ones to include other subjects, such as an art badge for that student who used their art skills to finish a project, etc.

There are, obviously a lot of different ways to look at this.  I'd like to hear from you.  I'm considering implementing this into my grading system for my educational technology college course next semester. I'll take your ideas, practice them and report back.  Maybe I'll even make an app for that!

Thanks in advance for your input!

Success in 40 Hours?

I recently found this post relating to the time that it takes to be a successful person.  Although the article is positive overall, my first reaction was that a person not sleeping for 48 hours to be successful is absolutely ridiculous.  Although I still think it is ridiculous, I do understand that being successful in whatever you do does take a little time. 

After reading, I thought about the successful people I knew and the time they put into their careers; some putting more time in than others with varying degrees of notable success. Then, I thought of myself and the success I have had over the past few years.  I have to admit that the time I have put into getting there has been above and beyond what I now believe one person should put into anything. I look back to weeks where I put in 80 hours of work and yes, lost a lot of sleep.  This caused me to wonder, does time equal success in all situations?  I don't think so but it does pose the very important next question:

What is success?

Is success getting the job done?  Is it creating goals and working to achieve them?  Is success failing?  Is it making someone else happy?  Is it juggling lots of roles/duties?  How do you measure success?  I think everyone has their own definition and as long as you know what your definition is, then you know what you have to work toward.  My definition of success today, although different than my definition in the past, is as simple as this: 

Setting and Achieving Whole Life Goals

My definition has always been "setting and achieving goals" but recently I've added the "whole life" to it and believe it is a huge component.  What do I mean by "whole life"?  All I mean by this is that there is a balance.  I don't measure success only by what I do in the workplace.  Success, to me is also how well I balance work with the rest of my life.  I have made a conscious decision that work will not be my life, however, it can and will be a part of my life that I enjoy.  All that being said, if I enjoy work, do I think about it past clock out time? Of course I do. I enjoy my career and I think about it a lot when I'm off the clock.  That extra time does add to my success, however I have made every effort to make it not so in-my-face during evenings and weekends (no work email /chat on my phone, etc.).

So, I guess to sum this up, success does take time but I don't think it has to take our lives.  I think it is wonderful to dedicate additional time to your career, especially if you're lucky enough to love what you do. You don't, however, need to dedicate every minute of your day and you surely don't need to not sleep for 48 hours to get it (at least not in my career choice, and I'm assuming the same of my readers).  Manage your success-oriented time wisely and remember life is multi-faceted.  If you're dedicating all of your time to one thing, you're missing out on a whole lot more. 

Learning Progression in IWB Classroom

I have been preparing for a SMART Board training in my school as many of the teachers here are brand new SMART users.  One of the comments I keep hearing is "I know I can't use it as a glorified overhead". My first reaction is to say, "well, yes you can and I expect it in the beginning".  I don't know how anyone will feel successful with the boards if they don't start from the basics.  In thinking about all of this, I decided that part of my training probably needs to be an explanation of how their learning will progress while using the boards as a teaching tool.  After a lot of thinking, drawing, writing and designing, I came up with this chart.  (Special thanks to @tgwnn, @mtrump, @alabamasue and @edtechsteve for their input during the design phase).  Take a look, use it how you see fit and recommend any additions/changes.