So, I just came up with an easy solution. I created an STJLabs Google Docs form listing each of my advisees as a question, and then “Yes” and “No” as the possible answers. When I hit submit on the form, the spreadsheet, which is securely located in my STJLabs Google Docs account, is populated with the answers to the “questions” along with the time stamp. What this means is that I no longer have to ever bring my attendance sheet with me to chapel. Instead, I take out my iPhone, load the form (which I have book marked so I never have to enter in the URL), click a few times, and then hit submit. When I get back to my classroom, I fill out my attendance sheet based on the information that’s sitting in the online spreadsheet.

Additionally, this give me a great easy to manage digital record of my advisory attendance. I’ve been liking the idea so much that I have thought about doing the same thing for each of my classes.

Here’s what the advisory attendance form looks like on my phone.

Give the system a try. I think you’ll like it!

Tip: To take a screenshot on your iPhone, hit the power and home buttons (briefly) at the same time. The screenshot will be placed in your “Photos” app.

This semester I decided to follow an idiom I should be teaching “there’s no time like the present.” In the spirit of this thought, I put a journal up in google docs. I told my students that I didn’t want to carry their notebooks back and forth any longer. If I want better biceps I will start to visit the gym. I explained to them that they needed to create the document – title it Journals Spring 2012 ESL 504, and then put a title and date on every entry. Now I can read them wherever I have access to my gmail.

It worked so well, that i’m having them do their first essay that way. Put it in google docs and let me look at it there. I tag the mistake and write (subject/verb agreement discrepancy – please fix this) if they want full credit they have one week to fix all the editing marks I’ve entered.

The best part – they can no longer say “you lost my paper” or “you never handed that back to me” or “I turned it in I know I did.” if it’s not a shared google document I didn’t get it.

Now the question is, how to use this for the major class project we are about to do: KIDZ WORLD V. Though I left the business world years ago, it seems that the planning, meetings, etc I used to do are probably all done through technology, but my skills are so rusty? Could we hold meetings with the college? Could we share documents through google instead of going up to the college to see drafts, etc? It seems we could find a more efficient way to do what we need to do.

Google Voice gives you more control over your phone calls. With Google Voice, you get one number for all your phones, cheap international calls, voicemail like email, and more, for free! (US only). You can watch a video about Google Voice right here.

Sign up right here: www.google.com/voice. Tip: When you sign up, put in your classroom phone number as your forwarding number, and then turn off call forwarding if you don’t want to forward any of your Google Voice calls.

Once you get set up, here are some things you can do to get started with Google Voice:

1. Read transcriptions of voicemails. Watch a video »
2. Customize which phones ring. Watch a video »
3. Personalize greetings for different callers. Watch a video »
4. Make cheap international calls. Watch a video »
5. Forward SMS to email. Watch a video »
6. Share voicemails with friends. Watch a video »
7. Block unwanted callers. Watch a video »
8. Screen callers before answering. Watch a video »
9. Access the mobile app on your phone. Watch a video »
10. Conference call with co-workers. Watch a video »

You know those technology problems that drive you absolutely crazy? You know, the ones that you absolutely need to solve but working on them feels like giving yourself a root canal? Well, I live for working on those types of questions. So, if you have a technology integration question, send it my way. The harder the questions the better.

As always, you can learn about what technology initiatives have been worked on at www.STJLabs.com. The members of the Academic Technology Team are: Karen Pontti, John Sayarath, Kendra Paupst, Kim Darling, Denise Scavitto, and Sandra Mings-Lamar. Make sure to ask us all questions whenever you have them.

Random question: Does anyone have a Verizon iPhone 4?

Here is everything I covered yesterday during the faculty meeting. (With a few more items added in.)

Note: Your Portal and your STJLabs accounts are totally separate. If you change your password on one, it does not change your password on the other. The login info for each:

Portal

Login Location: http://www.stjacademy.org/userlogin.cfm

Username: firstinitiallastname (example: jseamon)

Password: Whatever you set it as. Email me if you need it reset.

STJLabs

Login Location: www.Google.com (Click on sign in in the upper right.)

Username: firstname.lastname@stjlabs.com

Password: Whatever you set it as. Email me if you need it reset.

Note: Yes, I am very much sympathetic to the fact that you all have MANY online accounts for school: Stjacademy.org email, Portal, STJLabs, Edline, Admin+, etc. I totally agree that it would be amazingly awesome to have one sign in for all of the system, or even just a few. Unfortunately, that’s far from possible at this point. So, how to you manage all of your accounts? I highly recommend writing down all of your password. Yes, you heard that right — record them on a physical piece of paper. Try to use a different password with each account. What happens when people don’t write down their passwords is that they tent to use the same one on many accounts. If that’s the case and one of your account passwords is compromised, then all of the other accounts are compromised. Just keep that piece of paper safe.

Moving on…

In the next few days your class pages from last year will be archived. I’m am aiming to have your new class pages online by next Tuesday. Once your pages are archived you will still have access to them, that just won’t show up for anyone but you. To access your archived pages, login to the portal and then click on “Account: Your Name” on the far left of the bottom black toolbar. Then click on “Group Pages”. A new window will open up. Selected the “Archived Classes” radial then click on the little plus sign next to “Academics Classes”. You should then see a list of all of the pages you have been an administrator for. Click on one of those page names to load that page.

I have attached a manual outlining how to use the class web page system on the portal right here.

Your STJLabs Google account now functions just like a full Google account minus a few random functions that I doubt many of you have heard of. Your STJLabs Google account is functionally identical to the ones that students receive. To view a full list of the services you now have access to (YouTube, Blogger, Picasa Web Albums, etc.) please visit: http://bit.ly/qIkCZ7

My goal is to have all new students receive a handout outlining the connection info for their STJLabs Google and Portal accounts next Tuesday, 8/23.

A returning student who can’t remember their password for either system should be sent to me in SV21. Please remind the students needing password resets to come by after school and not during class time.

I will be running portal refresher training today (8/18) from 3:20 to 3:50 on the first floor of the library.

If you’d like one on one tech training, or group training for the portal or any other tech item, let me know.

The library now has 10 Kindles. Linda and her amazing team will be launching their use in the next couple weeks.

I will be sending out 2 convertible tablet PCs and 5 Kindles into the faculty in the next two weeks. If you’d like to learn more about these items, please come to an info session on Thursday, 8/25 in my classroom, SV21 at 4pm. The meeting will last around 30 minutes. (A convertible tablet is a laptop that can function as a regular laptop with a keyboard, as well as a tablet you can write on.) At this meeting I will also be discussion ways in which to function with tight bandwidth restrictions.

I will be setting up Netflix and Spotify accounts that can be used by the faculty. (Spotify is like Netflix streaming but for music.)

I currently have a bunch of USB drives and lots of Open Education Software Discs available. If you’d like some of them, let me know how many and I’ll drop them off in your mailbox.

Some bonus info: I just heard from Jim Mazzonna that the new copy machines will have two fantastically great capabilities

- They will be able to scan to PDF which will be emailed to your stjacademy.org email address (Just like the business office copier.)

- You will be able to print from a computer TO the copier. The copier will print out the job when you go to the copier and enter in your access code.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats and thanks :)

Let me know if you have any questions,

- Josh

The complete Google Blog post covering the upgrade is worth reading.

As a  bonus the equation editor is graphical AND it shows the LaTeX code, which can be directly edited!

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If you want to give a student their account info…

1) Login to http://docs.stjlabs.com

2) Click on “student-portal-stjlabs-google-account-v3″

3) Find their name on the list and verify that they have handed in their form. (There will be a “Y” in the “Form?” column if they have handed in their form.)

4) If they have not handed in their form, give them another copy to sign. (The form is attached to this email. There are also copies in the mail room.) If they say they have turned in their form but the list doesn’t say so, their form probably hasn’t been checked off yet or their hand writing was impossible to decipher. If either is the case, send them to me in SV21.

5) If the sheet says they have turned in their form, give them their username, initial password and the link: http://tinyurl.com/stjastudentaccountinfo. That links contains all the information they need to know in order to login to the portal and the STJLabs Google Documents system. I have attached a template for a small paper handout you can give them.

Let me know if you have any questions,

- Josh

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Technology Letter (PDF)

If you attended the January In Service it would be appreciated if you took a few minutes to fill out the January In Service evaluation survey.

1,000 copies of the technology letter to parents are sitting on the stack of copy paper in the mail room. Please pick up a copy for each of your advisees and hand one out to each of them during chapel on Tuesday, 1/13. Tell them they only need to return the signed form which is a single page (the 2nd page). They should hold on to the other three pages. Also remind them to print their name clearly. Your advisees should return the forms to you to be placed in the collection box which is located at the back of the mail room. By Friday of next week I will distribute the first round of log in credential handouts to each of the students that have returned their signed form.

As you know classes and class rosters are not up to date on the school website. My goal is to make the first of many updates to those lists by the end of this week. Remember that your current rosters and class assignments can be found on AP Web.

Remember that I will be running supplementary training sessions every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:30 in Severance 21. I will be able to provide a laptop to anyone that needs one.

One last note: I just received word from our web host that our calendar system is being upgraded to their new version tomorrow. Your existing events will not be changed. The calendar interface will change substantially. To learn about the new calendar system please take a look at this page.