Diary of a Techie Chick: online

My Take Away from ISTE....

When it comes to teaching 21st Century Skills do not focus on the technology or device, focus on the learning. Lets not make a presentation just to make one. Lets make an awareness, start a conversation, challenge minds, and build relationships. Use the tools such as Prezi, iMovie, VoiceThread, and etc... to reach the outcome. Lets also give our students choices on how they want to make their argument, collaborate on a topic, or share their stories. Lets allow them to learn from their mistakes and try new things. The best remark a presenter said was; "We didn't just one day wake up and say to ourselves that we are going to ride our bikes with no training wheels. We tried, we fell down, and we got back up, but we finally learned. That is the experience our students need."

If you plan on going to a large conference such as ISTE go with a buddy or a small group. Going by yourself can be a little overwhelming at times, plus you have some one to share with. You should also make connections with other educators. While I was at ISTE I tried to meet up with some of the great educators I follow on Twitter. Some where quick just to say hi and others ended up being long meaningful conversations that you can't have on Twitter. Take a few hours and see the sites or just to take a break. I went to the Aquarium, a Braves game, and the Zoo. These conferences are not just to learn but also to have a little fun.

Below are some of the tools I played around with at ISTE. I have several more but I want to play around with them 1st before I share them.

Some Tools:

Book Creator - http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator
Videolicious - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/videolicious/id400853498?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8
ThingLink - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thinglink/id647304300?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8 or https://www.thinglink.com
Stick Around - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stick-around-by-tony-vincent/id557949353?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8
Capzles - http://www.capzles.com
QR Voice - http://qrvoice.net

Educators to Follow:

Chris Lehmann - @chrislehmann
Angela Maiers - @AngelaMaiers
Melissa Edwards - @mwedwards
Holly Clark - @HollyClarkEdu
Rich Kiker - @rkiker

A New Journey ....

Teaching is a passion of mine. Teaching technology skills to other educators and students is a mission, passion, and a desire of mine. I was recently asked if I would develop online course to teach a variety of technology or 21 Century Skills to other educators. Without hesitation I agreed and quickly started building my 1st course. I am really into creating Green-Screen projects with my students so I couldn't think of a better course to develop first. Since creating Green-Screen projects can be as basic as possible to as complex as you want it to be I decided to create a handful of course designated to building different skill levels of Green-Screen projects. The 1st course will give you just the basics. You will learn how to navigate through the app I use with my students to create these projects. I will walk you through how to set up the app, add your background images, and finally record.

The next course will go more in-depth with the app. You will learn how to use more than one background while recording and how to focus for example along with many other options within the app. The 3rd course will include how to take your recordings and use them with a video editing app.

I am also developing courses to teach kids how to code at all grade levels, along with engaging presentations (not PowerPoints or a slideshow), and how to create a connected paperless classroom.

Online Course:

Creating Digital Stories with the Help of Green-Screen #1