Stefanie writes:

I am REALLY excited to move away from the traditional classroom setup and start focusing on a flipped classroom. I would like to start making online lectures (sort of like Khan Academy, but with more diagrams, links, and powerpoints) for students to view at home. This will allow me to give more individualized attention in the classroom. I want to start with the Biology Standard/Accelerated classes with the topics of mitosis, meiosis, and intro to genetics as a flipped classroom experience.

Also, this semester I will be tutoring a girl who is taking an A/P class through Kingdom Academy (working with Brad Ashley). I am interested in doing live tutoring with her where she can actually see my handwriting and speak to me real-time (so it is more similar to being in a classroom). I think the tablet would be awesome for that. I like having the opportunity to get involved with online learning because that is how I am earning my masters degree and am interested in getting involved with hybrid learning. I would like to be one of the first science teachers with an online science course.

The fact of the matter is that we are rapidly heading towards a hybrid learning environment with a HUGE learning curve for the teachers at this school. It can only be beneficial to have someone involved that is excited to get a head start on the process. As we were told by the financial literacy speaker at the beginning of January, we are all a resource. I can be massively resourceful in the world of tablet computers and non-traditional learning. I am also glad that there is a mandatory training session every three weeks because it allows me the opportunity to learn more so I can then spread it on to others.

The tablet in combination with a flipped classroom seems like a win-win situation for everyone. I will get to spend more individualized time with students rather than lecturing and after one semester I will have daily lessons that future classes can see. This will improve continuity in the education that the students are receiving and be a miracle worker for sub plans. The students can still partake in lessons, as they will already be made by me! I also love the idea of looking at classes as more of a discussion opportunity rather than lecture. I enjoy having a seating arrangement in a square where we can all face each other. I got a wireless keyboard and mouse last semester and enjoy being able to interact with the students and make powerpoints on the spot as students come up with ideas. This allows me to email out our discussions in a powerpoint format at the end of class so they can use it for help during homework. A tablet will only enhance this experience (in a traditional classroom as well) because they will be able to see actual drawings and diagrams by me at home and it will be further reinforcement to what we have covered during the day when the diagrams were made. While I loved having a teacher at the board students facing forward lecture education, the times are changing quickly and I am excited to get involved with ways to get students more involved in their education.

Positive aspects of a tablet for the world at large include using less paper and getting rid of heinous whiteboard markers which will save the school (and the science department) a decent amount of budget funds.

Some of the challenges I predict will be: Getting students to take the time to hear my voice at home. That sounds sort of amusing, but I do think it’s going to be a challenge to convince students to sit down for even 20 minutes and look at their computer screen without bringing up facebook or looking at websites. So the initial hurdle is going to be coming up with creative, convincing ways of why it is beneficial to partake in online tutorial time at home. The positive part about this is that their tutorial will be a set amount of time–such as 30-40 minutes most nights and they will not have to struggle through a lot of problems without me, as I will be giving them individualized attention the next day.

With this upgrade/change, all Google Docs/Drive accounts will have a minimum of 5Gb of space, up from 1Gb in most circumstances.

Change Your Email Password Now

Gmail Meter indulges your inner statistician

This Lesson Is Great, Though I’m Not So Sure About Using Khan As A Model

A Texas University’s Mind-Boggling Database Of Teens’ Daily Text Messages, Emails, and IMs Over Four Years

100 Reasons To Jailbreak Your iPhone

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Travel Smarter 2012: The best gear for your 2012 travels

While I am away, Karen Pontti will be handling STJLabs password resets, and Merle Haskins will be taking care of Portal password resets. Thank you Karen and Merle!

The second technology in the classroom survey is now online right here [emailed out]. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. Your honest responses are incredibly helpful in charting the course of educational technology at St. Johnsbury Academy.

Here are the most recent posts to the STJLabs blog:
Kindle Stats!
From around the web…
Paperless grading, dropbox & DropBox
Online backups with Google Docs

The new rounds of three programs are now online and due by 3/15/12:
Tablet Program
$250 Tech Grant
Tech Stories

Many tech intergration support documents are online right here: http://stjlabs.com/support/

Support document of the day: Complete Class Pages Manual

Kwiqpoll Lets You Easily Create…Polls

VLC 2.0 first look: Video player app features new single-window UI and robust media support

Grrr! Escape Manic Moments With These 5 Stress-Reducing Sites

Technology Integration Matrix

Top 10 Downloads That Enhance Mac OS X’s Built-In Tools

DropBox gives users 2GB of space for free. You can get 250mb more by referring friends to the site. You can also pay $100 a year for 50Gb, or $200 for 100Gb of space. Also, Dropbox does not have an online file editor. You must download files and edit them locally.

Enter Insync, a fantastic cloud backup system that is identical to Dropbox except that it syncs all your files to your Google Docs account!

This means:

1) You can edit many of your files online (Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations)

2) You can expand your space for a much lower price. 20Gb costs $5 per year! 80Gb costs $20 per year! You can go up to 1,024Gb for $256 per year! Awesome.

I highly recommend giving the system a try. Everyone should have an automated off-site backup for their most important files.

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education and creative expression over the next one to five years. The areas of emerging technology cited for 2012 are:

Time to adoption: One Year or Less
Mobile Apps
Tablet Computing

Time to adoption: Two to Three Years
Game-based Learning
Learning Analytics

Time to adoption: Four to Five Years
Gesture-based Computing
Internet of Things

Simply put, all you need to do is send an email to format@zamzar.com where format is the format you want to convert to. In a few minutes you’ll receive and email back with a link to download your converted file. So, if you had a .docx that you wanted to convert to a pdf, just attach the file to an email sent to pdf@zamzar.com and wait a few minutes. In a few minutes you’ll receive an email like this:

I just tested out the system with a .pages file I wanted converted to .doc, and the system worked perfectly.

Important notes to keep in mind:

1) You do not need a Zamzar account to use the system.

2) Unless you sign up for a paid account, your files must all be under 1Mb.

3) The system works for almost all document, picture, and video file types.