EdTech.TV

Technology Training for Busy Teachers

Jambox Review – Classroom Speakers

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Teachers across the world have all dealt with a universal problem – speakers in the classroom.

Seriously, this:

Jambox Review - Classroom Speakers

Ugh.

Any teacher who’s spent time under their desk messing with this knows what I mean. Can I get an Amen?

So today I’m reviewing the Jambox for classroom use:

[button link=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=b0560-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004E10KI8″ size=”large” color=”orange” window=”yes”]Get it Now on Amazon[/button]
Or go straight to the website for the customizable designs I talked about (It’s cheaper on Amazon).

I want to reiterate that this is not a cheap replacement speaker if you accidentally ripped the cable out of yours in frustration – this is a quality, TRULY portable speaker with a lot of versatility and robust functions.

Beyond the Review

In addition to the basics, the Jambox has a lot of cool functions that you won’t get from other speakers.

First and foremost, the speakers are updatable. You can change the voice to match your preference, and they even have seasonal updates for things like Santa speaking to you.

Second, you can use Dial Apps for hands-free assistance should you want to use the phone function. Believe it or not, I’ve heard of people plopping these things down on their dashboards and using it for a speaker system and in on-dash phone system.

These extras and whatever new things they update it with are all available at mytalk.jawbone.com

Final Verdict

Not cheap, but totally worth it. I did some serious research and consideration before buying this, and to this day I’m still happy with my choice. If you make the investment, you’re definitely not going to go wrong with it.

Here’s that link again if you want it:

[button link=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=b0560-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004E10KI8″ size=”large” color=”orange” window=”yes”]Jambox on Amazon[/button]

*Photo from Comedy Nose on Flickr

The Toilet Buzzer

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Alright, I’m the first to admit this is pretty ridiculous:

Toilet Buzzer

It’s not real – simply an idea I came up with as I saw the SAME students “going to the bathroom” again, the same as they do probably 3 times a day or more.

This isn’t really tech in the way we’re growing accustomed to thinking about it today, but more in the tinkering days of old – and frankly this is a piece of technology I’d happily buy if someone made it.

Here’s the idea:

A simple light with a timer installed in it. The teacher can choose the time limit – maybe anywhere from 3 – 7 minutes. When a student has to leave to go to the bathroom, they tap the buzzer (which is off by default) and go to the bathroom. When the time is up, the light goes on. Simple as that.

So what’s the point?

As a teacher, you know about how long it takes to go to the bathroom and get back. You can choose a reasonable amount of time, and allow your students the freedom to respond to Nature’s call.

It also gives you some classroom management control:

  • Only one student out at a time
  • If the light goes on and the student isn’t back, pick your penalty. Mark them tardy or absent? Make them tidy the room at the end of the class? Write an essay on why they needed so long (CAREFUL with that one, you may not want to read it!). Etc.
  • What’s it worth?

Depending on your schooling situation, it could be a novelty, or it could be awesomely invaluable, putting the impetus of responsibility on the student and not on you to chase them down and count how long they’re gone.

I’d happily pay $12.

If you’re an ambitious type and actually want to design this and send it off for production, just send me a free prototype, and the idea is yours. Actually, if you make it, let me know! I’ll help you sell it!

To those who just want one, what would you pay for one? How would you use it?

How to Make a Blog for Teachers [Tutorial]

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Hey guys, For the first tutorial on EdTech.tv I couldn’t imagine anything more fitting than actually taking you through how to build your own blog. These days it’s really easy. You can have your own website up and running in less than five minutes (but to be safe, for a first time you should be generous with yourself and do it in 10-15). If you’re on a lunch break, go ahead and watch this video I created for you on how to make a blog:

To be honest there are a LOT of services you can use for hosting and domain services. The problem is that for a lot of people, their head starts to get that feeling as soon as I start talking about “hosting” and “domain services” and all the other stuff that really isn’t important. That’s why I suggested an all-in-one package in the video. If you’re coming back and prefer to read a basic walk through instead of watching the video, here it is:

  • Sign up with Bluehost * and register your domain name.
  • Sign up for whatever plan fits into your budget.
  • Don’t worry about any of the upselling – it’s not important, at least not right now.
  • DO probably get the feature called “WHOIS Privacy” – That way people can’t look up your address and phone number if you don’t want them to.
  • Log into C-Panel
  • Scroll down to “Site Builder”
  • Choose WordPress from the script list and install a new version
  • Fill out the info as you want it
  • Skip any plugins or themes for now
  • Click “Complete” – it will build your blog in the background
  • Go to www.yoursite.com/wp-admin and fill in the login and password
  • You will be taken to the dashboard – Make your first post!

In a future tutorial we’ll talk about redesigning your site, making it prettier/appropriate to your audience, and the plugins you might want. One more thing: I’m giving you permission to play around in WordPress. Click the buttons, make mistakes, accidentally erase things. Remember, you didn’t have a site before, so anything you’re doing now is INFINITELY BETTER!!

If you’re ready, let’s do it!

[button link=”http://www.edtech.tv/bluehost” size=”large”]I want to Make My Blog Now![/button]

* EdTech.tv uses affiliate programs for trusted and useful services and products in order to keep costs down and motivation up! If you feel uncomfortable using the links to support EdTech.tv, there are no hard feelings :) Please know that the services and products still have our full vote of confidence with or without affiliation.

“Really Learning”

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I’m sitting in my local coffee shop, considering what I want to write about and directly across from me a college-aged girl and her mother are having an argument because the girl didn’t sign up for her college courses early enough.

The mother suggested that she take some online courses. The girl was almost offended.

“I don’t want to take an online course because that’s not REALLY learning!”

Huh.

That strikes me as interesting. It makes me wonder what – in the mind of a person with such a mindset – is “really learning.”

There’s plenty of research on what learning is and how it works, but I’m going to run on the assumption that this particular girl hasn’t considered pedagogical theory on any level deeper than, say, gut feeling.

Let’s make a list of what might make for this so-called “real learning” in an off-line world (list time!):

  • A building with a communal gathering space
  • A professor you can interact directly with
  • Classmates
  • The campus experience
  • Saran-wrapped muffins

OK, the muffins I get – really. When I saran-wrap my own muffins, they’re just not the same.

Let’s be honest here, with modern technology we can interact in real-time with our professors and classmates, have quicker and more modern (read: updated on the fly) materials, and we can do it all in our pajamas.

I’d venture to guess that this girl wasn’t actually talking about learning at all. She’s talking about the infamous “college experience”

We’re in an interesting cultural shift. We know that learning online is becoming the realistic future of the university system, and yet we cling onto the idea that somehow brick and mortar makes our experience more valid than 1s and 0s.

I am in no way discounting the college experience. I believe that it’s hugely important, and in fact part of the reason that “No one’s got the model that’s going to work yet” is specifically that people haven’t figured out how they can build a social experience similar to the college setting without the college setting.

I’ll leave that to other creative entrepreneurs to figure out, but I might suggest that the seeds of those experiences are sprouting through Meetup and other sources that are working to connect strangers through shared interests.

Back to really learning:

I took an online program for my Master’s Degree specifically because I knew that the future of teaching and learning is online, and I wanted to make sure I had gone through the experience as a student.

If you haven’t taken an online course, webinar, etc in the last year or so, your vision of the online experience might be somewhat dated.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine got his Master’s Degree online with some variety of this basic Blackboard layout:

Is this what you think of when you hear "Online Course?"
Is this what you think of when you hear “Online Course?”

Gross.

If your vision of Online Learning isn’t a significantly closer to this, you’re waaay off base:

This is NOT the future, this is last year.
This is NOT the future, this is last year.
  • Live face-to-face interaction with your professor.
  • See your classmates faces instead of the back of their heads (better than “real life” ?)
  • Share ideas in live chat boxes without interrupting the professor or the classmate who is speaking
  • Share notes instantly
  • Break out into chat sessions with any number of classmates, and then come back into the class
  • Record everything for replay anytime in the future.
  • Etc, etc, etc.

THIS IS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO TEACH IN THE FUTURE.

Actually, I’m lying. It will be more advanced than this. I like to think of this as the ‘toddler’s steps’ of new education.

Wait a minute – maybe we can REALLY learn online.

What do you think? Have you taken online courses? Removing the physical aspects of the experience, do you feel that the learning itself was any different either in a good way or a bad way? Leave a comment below and let me know, I’d like to hear about it.

Go Paperless in 2013

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How much paper are you throwing away?
How much paper are you throwing away?

As teachers, we use a lot of paper. A LOT. We always try to be conscientious about the environment, but it’s often difficult or tedious to cut and paste and shrink and reduce everything to fit onto one sheet of paper.

So as you get into EdTech.tv, is the first thing I’m going to tell you to be “STOP USING PAPER YOU TREE KILLER!!” ?  No.

Well, yes.

Kinda.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s realistic to eliminate paper completely, at least not yet. but we can all start making steps. That’s what the folks at gopaperless2013.org are working at. Now the cynic in me might say that these companies all have a vested interest in you NOT using paper, because that’s their entire business model. At the same time, the pragmatist in me says that hey – regardless of how it’s getting done, if the use of paper is going down it’s a good thing.

The nice thing about paperless2013 is that they send you a monthly letter encouraging you with tips and ideas about how to work on reducing your paper consumption, serving as a gentle reminder.

Promotions and business practices aside, EdTech.tv is essentially a paperless movement itself. As we move forward learning to implement technology in more and more effective ways, we’ll have continually less need for wasted paper.

In my own classes I’ve reduced waste by projecting papers on whiteboards and correcting work live on the board. With so many students carrying smartphones or iPods around, I often just ask them to simply snap a picture of the homework assignment instead of wasting a piece of paper or having it scribbled onto the corner of a worksheet where they’ll soon lose it.

This may seem small, but imagine you’re only saving a sheet a day for 20 students. That’s assuming you only have one class of students, you’re saving almost a ream of paper per month – no small impact.

Do you have any tips or tricks that have helped you reduce paper waste as a teacher? Leave a comment below. You’d be surprised at how your simple idea might never have occurred to someone else.

Here’s to a great and eco-friendly 2013!

Welcome to EdTech TV

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Hey everybody,

My name is Brent, and I’m the proprietor of EdTech.tv. A first post is kind of a tricky thing because you want to encapsulate everything you plan to do with a site as well as present yourself well and hope that people find things interesting enough to keep coming back.

The problem with all of that is that – much like education and learning – a blog is a never-ending process of change and improvement. I hope you’ll allow me to keep things fairly simple for now, and we can expand on them in the future.

The Goal

Every good website should have a goal, a reason for existing, and a driving purpose. EdTech.tv strives to help the average teacher wade into the deep waters of Education Technology without overwhelming or (more bluntly) freaking anyone out.

The Difference

There are actually a lot of good sites out there with plenty of info about Ed Tech, so why come here? The truth is that I consider myself fairly tech savvy, but the things that people are talking about “out there” are WAY over the heads of the majority of teachers who are just struggling to play videos on their classroom computers. Frankly, those are the majority of teachers – In the teaching world we have a legion of willing educators who aren’t getting the basics, and feel like they’re falling behind. Here they can learn to catch up, and hopefully even to take the lead.

The Specifics

Yes, you’ll find news on changes in Ed Tech here, but we’re going to make a hard right at academia and straight into practical territory here. When I got my MAT, I was sorely disappointed by the lack of practical resources being provided to me. While we don’t have the resources to cover all practical aspects of education, my goal is to make EdTech.tv a far superior source of training to teachers than they ever received in their (dare I say overpriced?) institutions of higher education.

The Path

It is my intention to eventually have two paths, the free site and the premium site. The free site will provide you with updates on the world of EdTech, reviews of useful products, and thoughts & opinions. The premium site will provide regular tutorials to help empower you to take control of your teaching career over the ever-increasing demands of the school administrators AND to keep it reasonable on the wallet, because I know what it’s like to live on a teacher’s budget.

That’s about it. What do you think? I’d like to know your thoughts and I’d LOVE to know what you want to know about Ed Tech. Get specific – I’m here to help!