TeacherScribe

Ten Ways to get the Most out of Your Technology.

I couldn't agree more with the following suggestions -

1. Get a smartphone. I was the most anti-cell phone person in our building (well, almost). I fought to get on the student handbook committee to see about banishing the damned things. I was ready to invest in my own secret blocking software and fire it up in my classroom. Then, though, Kristie and I upgraded to Blackberries, and I was reborn a smartphone convert.

Work email, texting, pictures/video, music, Facebook, ESPN, Twitter, blogger . . . it's all right there. In fact a few years ago as I was hauling our patio furniture over to Mayville, using my phone and iPod, I was able to work all the way there. I wanted to preview an Edgar Allan Poe video for the next school day. I listened to it on my iPod. Whenever a question or comment popped into my mind, I pulled over and typed it on my memo pad on my phone. Then I converted it to Word and emailed it to my laptop. On the way back, I stopped at Caribou Coffee and fired up my MacBook. I then posted the assignment to my teacher website and I was set to go.

2. Back up your data.

Western Digital - and the one terabyte external hard drive I bought - saved my life last spring when my computer's hard drive went out. Luckily, apple had extended the warranty. Then this winter - like a moron - I spilled coffee on my keyboard. I thought for sure it was a goner, but a new keyboard has done the trick so far (just knocked on our wooden table), but I need not fear because I knew I had just used Time Machine (which is one of the greatest features Mac has ever come up with - and that's really saying something!) the previous day to back up everything.

3. Set up a free file-sharing service.

After our media specialist showed me the wonders of dropbox, I've been a total convert. If all of my students were to install dropbox on their computers, regardless whether PC or Mac, and they were to link to me, they could upload something to drop box and it would instantly appear in my dropbox folder too. How nice is that? No more worrying about emails coming through or being blocked.

Plus, it's handy for me. If there is a sample essay I want them to read or a video I'd like them to watch, I can just upload it to dropbox and they'll have it. Think of the money in paper that could be saved. Don't snicker at that either. We are cutting corners at LHS wherever we can, which is one reason the English department doesn't really have any colored paper to use.

I'm not sure if students could install dropbox on their smartphones, but if they could, just imagine the potential. (just checked and it does work on my Blackberry. I just added the Christmas picture of KoKo, Kenz, and Casey. And I'm now watching a video that I uploaded to my dropbox account. The only problem is that my Blackberry doesn't play .m4v or .mov vids so I had to use realplayer converter to take a .mov and convert it to the .3G format that my Blackberry will play. Then I uploaded it to dropbox on my Macbook. Then I opened the app on my Blackberry, clicked on the video, and it began to play right away ). So if I wanted students to watch a video and write an analysis of it or just be ready to discuss it the next day, I could upload it to dropbox and students could watch it on their desktops, laptops, or smartphones. That's pretty cool.

4. Upload your photos to the cloud.

I'm not a big fan of this - simply because I back up my photos with Time Machine and then delete them (knowing I have them on my external hard drive) - but if you want to preserve your pics and have easy access to them, use picassa. If you notice in the top of the right column is a picture slideshow - that's courtesy of my picassa account. What is great is that iPhoto has a link for you to upload your photos right to picassa. You can then delete them off your computer and know that they are safe up in the 'cloud.' I guess Facebook operates on the same principal.

Bonus - Here are a couple apps/downloads that I've recently come across and found really handy --

1. Evernote. Their claim is "Remember Everything," and it works very well. Kelly recommended this to me when she saw my collection of Stickies on my MacBook. Evernote is much simpler and easier. If I come across a webpage or story I like, I paste it to Evernote, and it's saved. Same with pics. What I find really handy is that I use it for all of my usernames and passwords. Since every download or app requires a username and password (and some require a password that has both numbers and letters, so I can't use my traditional password), I have a hard time remembering them all. But I just open Evernote and paste it in there. Evernote is cool too because it makes use of your computers built in camera. So if you want to take a picture and save it to Evernote, no problem. It's also linked to your computer's email, so you can email notes out. This makes the Stickie app seem like an 8 Track!

2. Quiet Read. This is an app that I use every day. Ever come across a really interesting website or blog entry (like this one! ha) or news story and wish you could save it for a later time? I used to have to scroll through the article and then email it to me (or print it out). But then our spam filter would block the story sometimes or I'd never get around to reading it.

Well, quiet read allows you to simply highlight the url of your blog entry, story, or article and drag it to the quiet read logo at the top of your screen. Drop it in there and it's bookmarked for you in a little coffee cup logo. It even lists the number of links you have stored in there. Just open it up and scroll on the story or blog or article you want to read, click it and it opens right up for you. It's perfect for SSR.

3. Real Player Downloader. This gets a constant workout and really has replaced zamzar. RealPlayer is a download that allows you to convert and download videos to your computer. I use youtube clips all the time in class. So when I saw this app in MacLife, I gave it a try, and it's awesome.

It's a breeze to use. Here's how easy it is. I have a presentation coming up this month on using cell phones and iPods in the classroom. I love the Windows smartphone commercial where everyone is texting and everything starts to unravel (it's the one where the guy drops his phone in the urinal and bends to pick it up while another man says, "Really?"). I wanted to use this in my presentation. In the past, I'd use zamzar and copy the url and open zamzar and paste it in there and then wait for the zamzar email and then wait again to download it to my computer. RealPlayer cuts most of that out.

As soon as I found the commercial on youtube, RealPlayer automatically detected it as a video that could be downloaded. A little number appeared on the icon at the bottom of my menu bar. I opened the RealPlayer Downloader up, clicked on the commercial and it was downloaded to my laptop and placed in a specific folder for me to easily access. Then the downloader even asks me if I'd like to convert it to a different file format. The default is .flv, which isn't great, but I can convert it to play on my iPod, which opens in Quick Time Player.

These apps and downloads have made life on my MacBook much, much easier. Now if they could just develop an app that would prevent hard drive failure, leaving one's book bag (with my MacBook inside) on the street, and spilling coffee on the keyboard, things might be Kurt-proof. But I doubt it.