Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Make a fun Avatar with Picassohead < and many more>!

Avatar Laundry List!

Here are loads of graphic/avatar/image creation sites mixed in with a few Virtual Reality options! (Watch out- don't use these with your students until you preview them thoroughly... the sites can change often and the summary is simply my opinion and impression...)
 
Mr. Picassohead- Create  Picasso-like paintings and transform them into avatars.


http://www.bitstripsforschools.com has a free 30 day trial

simps.jpg
Simpsons Avatar Maker- "Simpsonize yourself".


    weeworld.jpg
Weeworld- Looks like kid-type avatars in a virtual worldwith a few games.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

shorten it and QR it with goo.gl

URL shortener that tracks all the shortened urls you've ever made and it makes a qr code for you all at once- goo.gl... just type goo.gl in your web browser.

goo.gl


URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page.
 Wikipedia lists these reasons for shortening a URL-- note that some sites will not allow posting of a shortened URL...
"Other uses of URL shortening are to "beautify" a link, track clicks or disguise the underlying address. Although disguising of the underlying address may be desired for legitimate business or personal reasons, it is open to abuse and for this reason, some URL shortening service providers have found themselves on spam blacklists, because of the use of their redirect services by sites trying to bypass those very same blacklists. Some websites prevent short, redirected URLs from being posted."


Friday, October 4, 2013

Everything I know about rolling out a 1:1 iPad initiative. Post 7: Parent and Community Involvement

Everything I know about rolling out a 1:1 iPad initiative.

Post 7: Parent and Community Involvement

Initially, we wanted parents to have an opportunity to help out with the setup of the iPads for our initiative!

We invited them to come help out with unpacking and setup of our iPads.  It was a very exciting day for all of us!  We stationed our new locking carts in the media center and had the iPads delivered to the media center.




We have also continued to hold parent training sessions and opportunities for students to showcase their work through the iPads, and our Learning Management System has a great Parent component.  We're planning a day of Student-Led Conferences also, where students will explain to parents how they use their iPad for school.

Refer to the original post for all posts in this series.  The posts will be active links when they are available. 




Thursday, October 3, 2013

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Everything I know about rolling out a 1:1 iPad initiative! Post 6: Training and App Selection

Everything I know about rolling out a 1:1 iPad initiative.

Post 6: Training and App Selection

We had a "Training and App Selection Team." Training and support is a critical need in the early stages of an iPad initiative.

Here are the apps we selected for our "boot camp"- an entire day of iPad training.

We also ability-grouped our attendees based on their honest responses to a skills index.  
Each group was named (we just used random colors) and name tags were the color of their group.

We met and distributed the training schedule, and were off on a day of learning and growing!  

We put together door prizes and had a drawing at the end of the day.  Each attendee received a nice new Stylus to keep.  We even provided pizza and salad for lunch.  It was a tremendous day of Professional Growth!

Here are the additional apps the team selected for the ipads:
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Refer to the original post for all posts in this series.  The posts will be active links when they are available. 

Everything I know about rolling out a 1:1 iPad initiative.

Post 5: Cases

We had a "Case Committee."  Cases are critical to the life of the iPads.

We came up with several criteria we wanted to have in our cases, and prioritized the criteria.  We learned LOADS about case manufacturers, case availability, bulk purchasing, features, materials, and ease of setup.
Our ideas:
1. We wanted durability as top priority.  
2. We wanted protection on corners as a priority.
3. We wanted a kickstand/easel of some sort due to the lighting in classrooms and screen glare.
4. The cases had to be affordable.
5. The cases had to be available in our time frame.
6. The cases had to fit in our cart.
7. We preferred a consistent color, but could give this up if needed and wouldn't mind a variety of colors.

We narrowed it down to these four finalists and ordered samples of each.

Griffin survivor•    landscape in kickstand only
•    thicker
•    has plastic cover

Trident AEGIS
•    no kickstand
•    has plastic cover
•    soft plastic corners

Speck candy shell Wrap
•    separates easily - will break
•    corner protection not as good

Otterbox reflex
•    removable cover issue
•    kickstand breaks
•    kickstand on cover and awkward kickstand
•    good corner

iBlaison ArmorBox
•    less expensive
•    no plastic sheet cover

We went with the iBlaison.  However, we have recently noticed kickstands are breaking off with no negligence on the user's part.  We're working with the company on a solution.

Refer to the original post for all posts in this series.  The posts will be active links when they are available.