Thursday, January 30, 2014

It's National Get Organized Month - here are some great resources




January is National "Get Organized Month" so I decided to share some resources on getting organized. There are some great sites out there too, including the National Association of Professional Organizers.

I am a type A personality in many ways and I've always been organized at work (not so much at home). As an engineer, it was vital to be organized. As a teacher, it was too, but harder to do. I learned some great things from United Technologies when I worked at Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. They use a system called ACE, Achieving Competitive Excellence, and parts of it are related to having an organized work space so that you can be more efficient.


Technology is also a great resource for getting organized. I'm about 99% paperless - everything is either done electronically or scanned. I use Evernote extensively for staying organized.

Below are links, with descriptions, to help you get organized.


Evernote Resources
Evernote is the i-ching for organization. Save everything here, organized by notebooks, notes, stacks, and tags and searchable. Text notes, files, documents, web clippings, etc. It is my main tool for everything from lesson plans, to meeting notes, to personal information to photos and more.

Google Apps Resources
Google apps, like email and calendar, can help you get and stay organized with the features they have. Google Keep is a great, simple note taking app that also allows you to set reminders. I use this for quick to-do's and checklists.

Getting Organized Tips and Resources
I wrote this last January and it has some great tips and ideas for getting organized, along with resources. I even discuss paper planning here.

Taking Organizing and Planning Tips from Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin was great at being organized and had some great ideas that are used today.

Great Uses for Binder Clips
Binder clips can help you get organized, and not just by clipping papers together.

Tips, Resources, and Ideas for Going Paperless
Going paperless can help you get more organized - less clutter, less space needed for paper, and the digital versions are easily searchable.

All Articles Tagged as "Get Organized"
This will pull up a list of any blog post that I tagged as "get organized"

Getting Organized with Google Calendar
Tips on using calendar to get organized.

Getting your Lesson Plans and Room Organized for a Substitute Teacher
Life is much better for the sub, your students, and you when you return, when your lessons and classroom are organized.

Using Technology to Organize your Lessons and Resources
I was a much happier, more efficient teacher when I got myself and my lessons organized.

Getting Students and Teachers Organized
Some tips for students and teachers.





Monday, January 27, 2014

MonioMap - visual mind map of your Evernote notes and notebooks


Mohiomap logo

I use Evernote a lot. I have about 100 Notebooks and close to 6,000 notes, so it can get a little overwhelming at times. I use tags and Evernote's search is great and the related notes feature helps find other info, but I just learned about a new service, made for Evernote, that turns your Evernote notes and notebooks into a mind map. It's called MohioMap.

MohioMap takes all of your Evernote notes and data and creates a visual map. It makes it easy to navigate and see connections. The center is your account and then it branches out by notebooks and notes. You can view the notes in Mohiomap or open in a new window or in Evernote itself. You can pin nodes on the map and view by relevance to points you click on and you can even drag and drop tags from one node to another, making it easy to connect notes by tags.

It adds another layer of functionality to Evernote.

Here is a view of mine for just my data for my CIO section:



Go to the site, create a free account, confirm your account and provide MohioMap with access to your Evernote account and you are all set.






Related:

Evernote for Education Resources

My Workflow as CIO - includes heavy use of Evernote




Thursday, January 23, 2014

My top Android Apps for Educators



I'm a huge Android user. I have my HTC One Smartphone and my own Nexus 7 tablet. In addition, my department uses Nexus 7 tablets for mobile access and some of our schools have Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets.

I have a bunch of apps that I use on a regular basis, both when I was a teachers, as well as now as a CIO. This is my list of top apps for educators:



Gmail - email is the main way I communicate with my staff, vendors, and school admin and teachers. It is indispensable for me. I can easily check all of my email accounts (4).



Calendar - my calendar is so busy that I would be lost without this. What's nice is that my personal and work calendars are overlaid for easy viewing.



Drive - access and create/edit/share documents anywhere. You can even view and edit none Google Docs files using QuickOffice (see below) that Google bought and integrated into Drive.



Evernote -is my favorite, and most used resource. I had all of my lesson plans, resources, web clippings, lesson schedule, meeting notes, misc. notes, task lists, reference materials and much more on here as a teacher and I now use it for all of my notes, meeting notes, references, project planning and more . I can access my notes anywhere and can even share notes with others.



Google+ - this is how I connect with other educational, technology, and edtech professionals. Easy to use, great for conversations and tons of great people and communities on here.



Edmodo - this is a major component in our school district and used widely by teachers and staff. It provides some great features and resources and is free.


Student SIS System - access student information anytime. Teachers can also use it to take attendance and as a roll book during a fire drill.



Splashtop - I use this to access my desktop and/or laptop at any time from anywhere. It allows me to do anything on my Android device, including running Windows apps and accessing all of my files.




QuickOffice - access, view, and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.Free version comes with phone and can view documents. Pro version adds editing for a fee.

Another feature of Android I love is the sharing. I can share from app to app with one click. Great for sharing resources with others.



Related:

Android for Education Resources

My Favorite Resources for Teachers and Students

Google for Education Resources

Essential Apps and Installs for Windows, Chrome, Android

Why I use Google's Products as an Educator





Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Two great teacher blogs showing uses of Evernote as teachers



I'm a power Evernote user and have documented a lot of ways to use Evernote in education over the years.

I recently found two blogs from educators that show how they use Evernote as teachers and offer some great ideas and tips for other educators.



Jordan Collier has a great blog with a whole section on Evernote. He is on #8 of 50 planned posts with different ways school administrators and educators can use Evernote to be more organized and more effective. There are some great ideas here.



The Not Another History Teacher blog, also has some great posts and tips for using Evernote in the classroom. Justin Stallings, another Evernote power user like me, is guest posting these articles.

Evernote is a great resource for education, and is free. If you haven't tried Evernote out yet, create a free account and read some of the posts on my blog and the two above for ideas on how to use it.


Related:
Evernote for Education Resources




Friday, January 17, 2014

Empty Inbox Courtesy of Evernote


Evernote graphic

I recently wrote about how I use Evernote as my main tool as a School CIO. It is my primary tool for work, and home. I just did some more with it that I found useful and liberating - emptied my inboxes!

Yes, you heard correctly, my email inboxes are empty. I used to keep emails in my inbox as reminders to do something about that email, follow up, a task, etc. But that meant my inbox was messy and I didn't always know/remember what I had to do with that email and there were no notes for it.



I have been using the clip to Evernote add-on for Outlook to save and store important emails in Evernote, but now I send them all there.

For my personal email, all emails I want saved go to Evernote and my personal notes. My personal email is pretty empty.

For my work email, I save all important emails, with the attachments, to notebooks based on what project they go with. Any email I save also gets moved to a folder in Outlook for backup reference.

For emails that require me to do something, I clip them to Evernote, and put a link to the note on my task list. This way, they are always on my task list so I don't forget them, and I can add other notes and information to the note for reference. They are better organized, easily searchable, and I can link them in other notes.

I have a clean inbox, all emails are organized (and with additional info) and set so I won't forget about them.

See also:

My Workflow as CIO - includes heavy use of Evernote

Evernote for Education Resources and Uses










Thursday, January 16, 2014

Adobe announces major updates to Creative Cloud, including 3D



Adobe Creative Cloud is Adobe's online suite of apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Today they announced some major updates, including the support for 3D printing, which is really cool, especially considering how popular 3D printing is becoming.



Read more below:

Major update to Creative Cloud with new features across its core tools—Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC  and Adobe InDesign® CC—including 3D printing support in Adobe Photoshop CC.
 Photoshop CC Advances Efficiency for DesignsDesigners can now radically improve collaboration with linked Smart Objects, which update the design automatically if a reference file is changed, and the new Perspective Warp feature, which changes the viewpoint from which an object is seen. New 3D printing capabilities integrated in Photoshop CC enable users to easily and reliably build, refine, preview, prepare and print 3D designs.
 Revolutionizing How Designers Work with TypeDesigners can now seamlessly connect to the Adobe Typekit font service in either Illustrator CC or InDesign, making it possible to integrate Typekit fonts into print projects, PDF files, DPS apps, and more. New functionality in InDesign CC reduces the frustration of missing font errors by automatically searching the Typekit desktop font library for options.
 Illustrator CC Gets Powerful New FunctionalityUsers can finesse designs more directly and intuitively with Live Corners, which allows designers to edit—and re-edit—the corners of shapes and paths visually with on-art controls, or input precise values. Additionally, Illustrator CC now offers more intuitive drawing with the rebuilt Pencil Tool; the ability to quickly modify existing objects and change the view of perspective drawings with Path Segment Reshape and export responsive SVG code and graphics.
 InDesign CC Meets New Creative ChallengesInDesign CC includes new support for EPUB 3.0 specification including new ways to add interactivity to eBooks, the ability to add pop-up footnotes that streamline the EPUB reading experience and support for Japanese Vertical Composition and Hebrew and Arabic text.
 Adobe Muse CC Gets More EngagingScroll effect enhancements in Adobe Muse CC make it easy to create subtle or dramatic scroll effects; a new Library panel stores frequently used design elements; and a dozen new social widgets make connecting to social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, a snap. Also added, Adobe Muse Exchange, a community-based exchange where custom widgets and templates can be borrowed and shared.

Related:

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Mobile Nations - great resources for all mobile OS's and devices



If you own a smartphone or tablet, you should be using Mobile Nations. Mobile Nations is a group of web sites that each focus on a mobile operating systems. Each site has app reviews, hardware reviews, accessory reviews, tips, resources, forums, help topics, and much more.

These sites are great for anyone who uses a mobile system, including teachers, students, and others. Find out about new apps, resources, tips, problems, help and more. Share them with your friends, students, and colleagues. Education apps and uses for the systems are often featured on the sites. EdTech and IT personnel can find help information, reviews, and more to help them use these devices.

I use Android Central (and subscribe via RSS) for my Android Smartphone to find tips, app reviews, and more. I've learned about new apps, problems, help tips, and more from these sites and spent a lot of time on Android Central reading phone reviews before purchasing my HTC One Android Smartphone.

There are 4 sites/communities based on different mobile systems.

Android Central for all things Android.

Crackberry for Blackberry.

iMore for iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Windows Phone Central for Windows Phone/Mobile





Android for Education Resources




Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Wolfram releases Problem Generator to create practice problems



Wolfram, creators of Wolfram|Alpha, have launched Wolfram Problem Generator. This tool allows students and teachers to create unlimited, random practice problems and answers in subjects such as elementary math, algebra, statistics and even college calculus. It provides hints and step-by-step solutions when needed to help the student learn.

It can also create printable worksheets and answer sheets for offline work. It includes three difficulty levels for each problem areas, accepts a variety of answer input formats and stores previously answered problems for later review.




Wolfram Problem Generator is now available to all Wolfram|Alpha Pro subscribers; there are no limitations or caps on the number of problems that can be generated. In upcoming releases, Wolfram Problem Generator will expand to cover problems in more areas of math and other core subjects like chemistry, which recently received Step-by-step capabilities in Wolfram|Alpha:
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/10/07/introducing-wolframalphas-step-by-step-for-chemistry
If you'd like to know more about Wolfram Problem Generator for your work or your own personal interest, visit: http://www.wolframalpha.com/problem-generatoror:
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2013/10/18/new-wolfram-problem-generator-practice-and-learn


Related:

Wolfram announces Wolfram Education Portal

Wolfram launches iOS app for Geography

Wolfram Alpha has a great contest for educators



Thursday, January 2, 2014

Infographics about Evernote



I know, another article about Evernote from Dave. Sorry, but I found these in my "to blog about" folder and wanted to share it before I forgot. Some interesting info and stats on here.

There are three infographics:

  • 100 new features in Evernote for Windows Desktop
  • All About Evernote
    • history
    • abilities
    • platforms
    • users
  • 101 Ways to use Evernote


Enjoy!

Lots more about Evernote: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/evernote-for-education.html

evernotewindows5_100-640







Lightzone - free, open source alternative to Lightroom


Lightzone-logo.png


Lightzone is free, open source, software for editing photos. It is similar to Adobe Lightroom. You do have to create a free account on their site, but it is quick and easy. 

Lightzone is available for Windows, Mac, and Linuz. You can edit batches of photos with effects and styles, color masks, and more. It can make it appear as if you took the photo under different lighting conditions, clean up photos and more. 

There are help videos and forums on the site with an active community to help you use it. 







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