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Tech Tools for Administrators. July 10 2009 Robin Smith Hollidaysburg Area School District. Goal of this Tech Tools Session . Show you some tools you may not have known about before so you can use tech tools to make your life easier. What we will be covering?.
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Tech Tools for Administrators July 10 2009 Robin Smith Hollidaysburg Area School District
Goal of this Tech Tools Session Show you some tools you may not have known about before so you can use tech tools to make your life easier.
What we will be covering? • Why it is important to use tech tools • Tech Tools – Hardware • Tech Tools – Software • Tech Tools – Web 2.0
Why ?????You are a leader in your district or you wouldn’t be here. As a leader you need to be modeling technology use to your staff.
Which leadership role do you have? • Superintendent 10003 • Assistant Superintendent 10004 • Principal 10772 • Tech Directors 10771 • Other 10002 To vote: Text a CODE to 99503 For those of you who can access the web on your phone, you may visit poll4.com to submit your response instead of sending a text message.
Who has more knowledge about tech tools and web 2.0? To vote: Text a CODE to 99503 or go to http://poll4.com • Administrators 10778 • Teachers 10779 • Students 10773
Students seem to have unlimited time to spend on technology. • They grew up with it as part of their everyday life. • They have no fear of breaking anything or something not working.
At the minimum, you need to find a way to stay in the loop of what is new and on the horizon. You don’t need to know everything – but need to have at least a few tools that will let staff know you are on the ball and using new technologies.
Most administrators are overwhelmed with duties and obligations. • No Time • Isolation • Resources • Don’t know where to start
Making technology a priority • Schedule time • Meet with others who want to learn similar technologies and teach each other • Meet with your tech director or tech administrator and have them provide updates/overviews of new tools. • Bring someone in to show administrators tools • Attend conferences and trainings.
Tech Tools - Hardware A Changing Landscape
Smart Phones • What is a smart phone? • A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality.
Tech Tools – Software Principalm Allows administrators to transfer student-information system data to a handheld device. Because data can be accessed from a handheld immediately.
Appraise • A teacher observation tool on the smart phone. Runs on palm, windows, and blackberry operating systems • Has PDE and other forms included. • Made by Eduphoria • Amy from Eduphoria here to discuss the program for just a few minutes.
Web Pages • More and More companies are providing web page templates and services to help you have a powerful presence on the web. • At Hollidaysburg, We use SchoolWires, which we think is the best….but many companies offer similar programs. • Schoolwires has blogs, photo-galleries, and podcasting available within their pages. • They have many new web 2.0 tools on the horizon. • www.tigerwires.com
Online Gradebooks • Improves communication between parents and schools. • Increases parent involvement • Provides information to parents and students 24/7 • Many programs available. We use ProgressBook • http://grades/tigerwires.com
www.mylearningplan.com • Online conference requests. • Tracks professional development activities • Automated reporting of Act 48 hours to PDE • Online district catalog of professional development activities. • Online registrations • www.mylearningplan.com
Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. As we look at netbooks and mini-laptops, smartphones, etc. Cloud computing offers districts many options for saving $$$$ and making equipment last longer.
Tech Tools – Web 2.0 • What is Web 2.0? • "Web 2.0" refers to what was perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication .
FREE • Many Web 2.0 tools are totally FREE • Others are very inexpensive. • Some are made especially for education or have education subscriptions
Google Tools • Google Toolbar • Calculations • Conversions • Be sure to use the word “in” • Dictionary • Define: • Weather • Type weather and city
Twitter • Launched in 2006 by asking “What are you doing?” • 140 Characters or less • Tweeting seems to be the latest craze • Statistics show that only 20% of users are active (Posting within the last 7 days) • Of those 20% only a small portion are posting every day or more often. • Some famous tweeters……Oprah, President Obama, SuzeOrman, Martha Stewart.
Twitter • Forces people to be succinct. • More and more organizations are utilizing Twitter to communicate with members.
My Space and Facebook • April Statistics • Myspace - 54 Million visitors • 7% decrease from April 2008 • Facebook - 71 Million visitors. • 217% increase since April 2008
Sharing a Long URL http://www.tigerwires.com/166790218133244/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=46281 http://www.tinyURL.com/hasdemployment
Wallpaper and Logos • Pix2Fone is a free service that lets you make custom cell phone wallpapers, backgrounds and logos in a snap.
Voice Conferencing • http://freeconferencepro.com
Mobile Notes • www.Jott.com • With a simple phone call, Jott Assistant lets you use your voice to capture notes & to-dos, set reminders and appointments, send email and text messages, and post to your favorite web services, all on the go. Our voice-to-text service turns your voice notes, messages, and updates into text and sends them where you want. • They now charge a fee $3.95 per month
Podcasting • www.gabcast.com • FREE • www.gcast.com • FREE
Personalized Voice Mail • http://youmail.com • Private voice recording site • You can leave different messages for different people • It sends you an message letting you know you missed a call. If the person is in your contact list, it will tell you who it is from.
Others • www.simplyrocket.com • www.flowgram.com • www.sliderocket.com • www.quizible.com • www.Evernote.com • www.diigo.com