"How do run the Tech Sherpa Show?"
Links:
We will be back Tuesday, October 29th at 3:00 EST
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
2013 MAINEducation Conference
To say this was a special MAINEducation Conference this year would be a terrific understatement.
I was honored to be awarded Actem's Technology Educator of the Year alongside Technology Leader of the Year Maya Crosby and finalists Page Lenning and Jacqueline Durant-Harthorne.
A special thank you to Cheryl Oakes and Alice Barr for all their help and guidance over the years and getting video from some of my students. It doesn't get better than that!
And what an opportunity for my students to hear amazing keynotes by Kevin Honeycutt and Dan Russell.
Thank you guys!
Tech Sherpa Show - October 15th
The questions covered this week:
"How do I embed an animated GIF from Auto-Awesome into my Google Site?"
"How do I embed an animated GIF from Auto-Awesome into my Google Site?"
"How do I sign out of my Google Account remotely?"
Links:
We will be back Tuesday, October 22nd at 3:00 EST
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Tech Sherpas - October 8th
"How do I sign out of my Google Account remotely?"
"What is a Student Learning Network?"
Links:
We will be back Tuesday, October 15th at 3:00 EST
Sunday, September 29, 2013
South Africa Summit
This week I had the opportunity to learn from an incredibly enthusiastic group of educators in South Africa! The EdTechTeam offered a Google in Education Summit to an audience of educators who couldn't be more receptive.
One of my favorite stories about the summit actually had to do with my son. I was lucky enough to be able to bring my eldest with me to Cape Town. It would be the first time going to Africa for both of us and we didn't know what to expect. Needless to say, we had an incredible experience and I know he'll remember it forever.
At one point, he wanted to rest in the rental car we had parked next to the building I was presenting in. (The jet lag was hard on him, but he keep up like a trooper.) So I set him up with snacks, a book and his iPad. I would check on him every few minutes. And at one point he sent me this email:
I was quite a proud dad, he had figured out how to connect to the wifi, shoot me an email and let me know he needed the keys to roll the window down. So I headed right out (I was next door to the car) opened the door and saw this:
It wouldn't surprise me at all if he'd never actually manually rolled a window down before. I decided to take it as a metaphor of how many of our students come with some technical expertise, but still need our support and guidance. (No matter how clever with an iPad they are :)
At one point, he wanted to rest in the rental car we had parked next to the building I was presenting in. (The jet lag was hard on him, but he keep up like a trooper.) So I set him up with snacks, a book and his iPad. I would check on him every few minutes. And at one point he sent me this email:
I was quite a proud dad, he had figured out how to connect to the wifi, shoot me an email and let me know he needed the keys to roll the window down. So I headed right out (I was next door to the car) opened the door and saw this:
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Maine Google in Education Summit
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| Keith Kelley with Robotics |
The students and I had a great time last week at the Maine Google in Education Summit. With over 200 educators from across New England and Canada. We were fortunate to have +Michael Wacker, +Tim Lee, +Ken Shelton, and +Monica Isabel Martinez join us as well as many local talent like +Alice Barr, +Cathy Wolinsky, +Cheryl Oakes and +Robert Dominick.
The highlight for me was the chance to see one of my students present at the Summit. Here's +Jared Gay in the opening keynote. We're looking forward to our next opportunity to help!
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| Jared in Opening Keynote |
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Building Learning Communities - 2013
Another amazing Building Learning Communities Conference for me and my students. I've been bringing students to BLC since 2006 and every year has been provocative and educational, but this year it felt like my students were more engaged than they ever have been.They had the opportunity chat with Alan November and he asked what they were taking away from the conference. They answered with all the exciting ideas they'd picked up, but then he challenged them. He challenged them to go back this year to school and do something about those ideas. (We've scheduled a follow up in October to see what they've come up with.)
That's the type of experience you don't get in the classroom. Sure, I can tell them to try new things, but when someone outside challenges your kids to be amazing, magic can happen.
Additionally, the Tech Sherpas invited attendees to join them in a live show from BLC. They were able to talk about some of the work they did there and their experience throughout the conference.
I also wanted to give a shout out to Melanie Spencer from Canberra, Australia who was inspired by the students to start their own Tech Sherpa team, FANTASTIC!
We're already looking forward to next year!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Summer Technology Institute
From the 18th Annual University of Maine
Summer Technology Institute in Belfast
we discuss working with students at tech support.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Where will Tech Sherpa's be this summer?
Looking for some PD opportunities this summer? Check out some of the events the Tech Sherpa students will be presenting.
Professional Development Opportunities
Student Showcase
Date: June 8th
Location: Sebasticook Valley Middle School, Newport ME
Website: www.studentshowcase.org
Summer Tech Institute
Date: June 24th - 28th
Location: Hutchinson Center, Belfast, Maine
Website: umainesti.umeedu.maine.edu
Building Learning Communities Conference
Date: July 22nd - 26th
Location: Park Plaza, Boston MA
Website: blcconference.com
Google Education Summit
Date: August 8th - 9th
Location: Hampden Academy, Hampden ME
Website: me.gafesummit.com
PREP Conference Keynote
Date: August 21st
Location: Orono, ME
ACTEM Conference
Date: October, 10th
Location: Augusta, ME
Website: ACTEM.org
Monday, June 10, 2013
Student Technology Showcase
Another successful Student Technology Showcase where our students get to show their technology projects. For more information visit:
Below is our Tech Sherpa coverage. In a very 'meta-moment' there is a section where the Tech Sherpa students are streaming as the Channel 5 reporter interviews them.
Newport - The RSU 19 middle schoolers were at school on Saturday, but none of them were sitting in a classroom. They got to show off to friends and family all that they have done this school year.
Keith Kelley is the Integrated Technology Teacher, he hopes the Student
Technology Showcase is a learning experience for kids and parents.
"Our robot kids that built the robots are now having to describe to mom and dad how to run it... so they learn a lot from that," Kelley said.
Connor Verreault is in the 6th grade at RSU. Saturday he got to learn about the robots. "I think it would be more fun to interact with the robots and build them for the end of the seventh grade year," he said.
The students host a live web "hangout" once a week during the year. They were hosting one Saturday as well. During the web chats they answer questions about technology from teachers around the world.
Jared Gay is one student who helps facilitate the online chats, "you can help teachers everywhere and that just always feels good and you know that your helping their students and it reaches out to them," he said.
Carol Burnette is one student's grandmother. She was excited to see what he learns at school, "it's a great experience, it's wonderful to see what the kids are doing and RSU has some great things that people should know," she said.
Riley Savage spent the year learning to build a skateboard, something she didn't think she could do.
"When I come into IT I feel like I can do anything that I want with my skateboard. After I did that I was like I can't believe I finished it and then after I did the grip tape and the trunks and the wheels I was like wow, I'm done" she says.
This was the 9th RSU Student Technology Showcase, and organizer hope to make it even bigger next year.
Channel 5 Wabi Story
WABI Channel 5 coverage
Newport - The RSU 19 middle schoolers were at school on Saturday, but none of them were sitting in a classroom. They got to show off to friends and family all that they have done this school year.
"Our robot kids that built the robots are now having to describe to mom and dad how to run it... so they learn a lot from that," Kelley said.
Connor Verreault is in the 6th grade at RSU. Saturday he got to learn about the robots. "I think it would be more fun to interact with the robots and build them for the end of the seventh grade year," he said.
The students host a live web "hangout" once a week during the year. They were hosting one Saturday as well. During the web chats they answer questions about technology from teachers around the world.
Jared Gay is one student who helps facilitate the online chats, "you can help teachers everywhere and that just always feels good and you know that your helping their students and it reaches out to them," he said.
Carol Burnette is one student's grandmother. She was excited to see what he learns at school, "it's a great experience, it's wonderful to see what the kids are doing and RSU has some great things that people should know," she said.
Riley Savage spent the year learning to build a skateboard, something she didn't think she could do.
"When I come into IT I feel like I can do anything that I want with my skateboard. After I did that I was like I can't believe I finished it and then after I did the grip tape and the trunks and the wheels I was like wow, I'm done" she says.
This was the 9th RSU Student Technology Showcase, and organizer hope to make it even bigger next year.
Channel 5 Wabi Story
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Tech Sherpas - Google Hangout Best Practices
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tech Sherpas - Using Lego MindStorms in the Classroom
The question covered this week:
"How do you use Lego Mind Storms in the classroom?"
Links:
itsvms7.blospot.com
We will be back Tuesday, May 21st at 3:00 EST
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Tech Sherpas - Collecting videos with YouTube and Digitizing Elementary Students Work.
The two questions covered this week:
"Can I set a YouTube playlist up so
anyone can upload to it?"
"How do you digitize elementary students work."
Examples of Students Digitizing their own work
We will be back Tuesday, May 14th at 3:00 EST
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
A Spoon is not a Fork.
The question covered this week:
"What do you think of the proposal for Maine's 1to1 laptop initiative?"
We discuss some of the implications of this shift for students, teachers and the state at large. It's important to note that as of the latest information, districts will still have the option of buying into the other hardware choices (iPads and MacAirs) if they foot the cost of the difference.
My personal feelings is that I know it matters what platform you use, but less and less than ever. If the web is your production platform, then the devices just become the conduit to your content. That said, there is undoubtably a trade off. There are local programs and features that do not have the equivalent in cloud services yet. A spoon for soup and fork for spaghetti. But that's changing, and all the major players know it. Microsoft's latest version of Office saves your files in their Skydrive (cloud storage) BY DEFAULT. That's a huge shift in functionality and assumptions about users. One of drawbacks of this is how each company is building their own digital fiefdom, and not playing well with others.
iCloud vs. Google vs. Skydrive vs. Dropbox, etc.
We don't want them to build these artificial digital ecosystems where you have to choose one closed garden over the other (think AOL circa 2005.) Facebook is pushing this, they are the one service to rule them all, the difference is there's no cost to changing social networks. Hardware costs money and all the apps we buy for them will not transfer. Right now when I buy music, I buy it on Amazon which downloads a copy to iTunes which syncs with Google Music. Yes, I now have the song in each service, but it's quite a Rube Goldberg way of accomplishing this.
Hopefully it will get better.
Spork anyone?
We will be back Tuesday, May 7th at 3:00 EST
Friday, April 26, 2013
LearningModule.com
The question covered this week:
"How do you prepare students for online learning?"
The purpose of the site is twofold,
- First, for students to prepare the new Google Apps account they will be using in the high school. They subscribe to school calendars, organize their Google Drive folders and take a copy of our Student Portfolio. All in preparation for our digital portfolio system.
- Second, the students have experienced learning purely online. There is no class time set aside for students to complete the mini-course. There are 5 tasks, though none of them are particularly arduous. The point is for them to complete school work, (without a teacher prompting them over their shoulder.) Also, there are a handful of technology skills embedded in the task. For example, watching a short video and recording a response. This is not a difficult task, but in completing it, the students have shown they can reflect, digitize that reflection and hand it in.
We will be back Tuesday, April 30th at 3:00 EST
Monday, April 22, 2013
Managing Bulk Users with Google Apps for Education
If you are the administrator for Google Apps for Education you're probably thinking ahead about the upcoming summer break and might be wondering what you're going to do about your student accounts. If you want to pause student access to their account for the summer, the easiest way is to simply reset the password. There are a couple ways to accomplish this, if you're into command lines and enabling APIs a great resource is GAM or Google Apps Manager. You can find GAM here:
But, if you're looking for a more straight forward method you can update all user passwords at once with Bulk Uploader.
1) Login in as an Administrator of the Google Apps Domain.
2) Retrieve a CSV file of all your users by copying and pasting this link into the browser:
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/DOMAIN.ORG/DownloadUserData/UserData-DOMAIN.ORG-20130405.csv
and replacing DOMAIN .ORG with your own Google Apps domain address. Once you have the CSV file upload it into a Google Spreadsheet. This file can be sorted or filtered if you only want to reset certain users. The final spreadsheet should only have these column headers:
By replacing the password column with one that you set. Then, click File and select Download as .csv file.
3) Go back to the Google Apps for Education Dashboard. Click the Users tab and select More actions - Bulk upload users.
Make sure you check Update existing accounts so passwords will be reset. You can also force users to reset their password after they have logged in.
There are Third Party Apps in the Marketplace that will help with some of this process. One is Flash Panel which is free and helps with user management as well as other features. Also, if you are looking for an easier way to sort, filter and manage the users, click the link for a copy of the
that I use to collect the users accounts, sort them and change the password in a click. I then download the sorted, filtered CSV tab at the bottom.
But, if you're looking for a more straight forward method you can update all user passwords at once with Bulk Uploader.
1) Login in as an Administrator of the Google Apps Domain.
2) Retrieve a CSV file of all your users by copying and pasting this link into the browser:
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/DOMAIN.ORG/DownloadUserData/UserData-DOMAIN.ORG-20130405.csv
and replacing DOMAIN .ORG with your own Google Apps domain address. Once you have the CSV file upload it into a Google Spreadsheet. This file can be sorted or filtered if you only want to reset certain users. The final spreadsheet should only have these column headers:
Username | First Name | Last Name | Password
By replacing the password column with one that you set. Then, click File and select Download as .csv file.
Make sure you check Update existing accounts so passwords will be reset. You can also force users to reset their password after they have logged in.
There are Third Party Apps in the Marketplace that will help with some of this process. One is Flash Panel which is free and helps with user management as well as other features. Also, if you are looking for an easier way to sort, filter and manage the users, click the link for a copy of the
that I use to collect the users accounts, sort them and change the password in a click. I then download the sorted, filtered CSV tab at the bottom.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Tech Sherpa Show - Backing Up Google Data
The question covered this week:
"How do you back up your Google data?"
We will be back Tuesday, April 9th at 3:00 EST
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tech Sherpas - March 26th
The question covered this week:
- "Do you know of any screen recording Chrome Extensions or websites for screen recording on Chrome books? The lack of Java and Shockwave have my class set somewhat limited. Want students to create screen casts."
- "How do I edit video using YouTube Video Editor?"
We will be back Tuesday, April 2nd at 3:00 EST
Monday, March 11, 2013
Untapped Resource
In the book I'm Feeling Lucky, Douglas Edwards relates the story of his initial interview with Sergey Brin when he applied to work at Google in 1999. Near the end of the interview, Sergey got up and told him, "I'm going to give you five minutes, when I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know."1 He could pick any topic he wanted, but would explain it to Sergey in great detail. After the interview, when he asked why he had to cover a topic that had nothing to do with his work, Sergey explained, that if he hadn't been hired and time he spent in the interview was a waste, he would have still learned something.
It's the same having students provide tech support in education. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a mantra I'll share with anyone willing to listen. The most underutilized technical resource that we have in education is the students themselves. And, most importantly, it's not about the technical work that they're doing at all, it's about everything else they get from it. The experience of helping others, building relationships with their teachers and learning how to communicate.
The value of their involvement in a 'Tech Team' is twofold:
This was the impetuous behind the Tech Sherpas. A weekly live tech support show that is run by students. They take questions during the week on the www.techsherpas.org site and every Tuesday at 3:00 EST (UTC-4) where the students run a live Google Hangout. Everyone is welcome to connect, ask questions and join the conversation. You can find show notes from previous shows here and for the full story, visit Actem's Electronic Educator. When students don't have the answer, they use the week to research the topic and have it ready for the next week.
The value of their involvement in a 'Tech Team' is twofold:
- First, the school has them using their powers for the forces of good. Rather than spending their time finding ways to thwart the content filter, they can be helping out. If you think this the equivalent to letting the animals run the zoo, understand that last year National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander addressed DEFCON, a yearly gathering of the hacking community, and asked for them for help. The NSA chief said. "You know that we can protect networks and have civil liberties and privacy; and you can help us get there." Seeing all those intelligent, motivated people as a group to work with rather than against. In most schools if you need to know how to get around the security, ask the students. It's having the discussion with the students about the why we do what we do that is crucial.
(Using students as classroom webmasters.)
- Now, that doesn't mean that every student is up to the task. It's imperative that the organizer connects the right students with right teachers. Not everyone is a fit, but if you are familiar with both groups then when a teacher asks for help, you can match them with a willing student. I am often asked, how do I find these students? And the answer is that I start young. You don't start a winning sports team in high school. I work with kids as young as fourth grade and start thinking about which kids I believe will be interested and able to handle the responsibility when they're older. When I talk to the kids I'll ask them, "What am I looking for in a Tech Sherpa?" The response I usually get is: 'Someone good with computers' or 'Has straight As' and I tell them that, tech wise, I can teach them what they need to know and that good grades are great, but not required to take part. The number one requirement that I'm looking for is trust. I need to trust that the students I send out to work with others will be professional and be able to deal with whatever situation arises. Including not knowing the answer. There's no harm in saying, "Sorry, I'm not sure how to answer that question, but I'll get back to you." Then the student does their research and tracks down the solution.
This was the impetuous behind the Tech Sherpas. A weekly live tech support show that is run by students. They take questions during the week on the www.techsherpas.org site and every Tuesday at 3:00 EST (UTC-4) where the students run a live Google Hangout. Everyone is welcome to connect, ask questions and join the conversation. You can find show notes from previous shows here and for the full story, visit Actem's Electronic Educator. When students don't have the answer, they use the week to research the topic and have it ready for the next week.
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Tech Sherpa Show - March 5th
The question covered this week:
- "How can I use Google Tools to make an easily updatable District Web App."
Example: mobile.nokomiswarriors.org
- "Using Google Spread Sheet I would like to create a Rule that means if the text column A is ALC and the Text is column B is DSB, then in column C 2.1 automatically gets entered in.
We will be back Tuesday, March 12th at 3:00 EST
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