http://help.edmodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/UserGuide_Sep11.pdf

http://www.edmodo.com/

http://blog.edmodo.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmodo

A FREE global community where students, experts, and educators can collaborate on projects as well as find a library of new ideas.

Skype for Education

TRIO students must learn 21st Century technology and collaboration skills. With Skype for Education they can connect globally to different cultures, languages, and ideas. They can attend a virtual field trip, or talk with scientists…the possibilities are endless.

At this time there are 1873 Projects listed and each one is asking for outside participation – why not list your own project to collaborate with other TRIO students and experts? Check out the Collections page to view amazing projects from around the globe! And get TRIO students involved.

http://education.skype.com/

http://blogs.skype.com/en/education/

http://blogs.skype.com/en/whitepaper/skype-in-the-classroom.pdf

http://education.skype.com/collections

Office Applications/Suites:

• iWork for iPad ($9.99 per App): Pages for iPad (word processing), Numbers for iPad (spreadsheet), and Keynote for iPad (presentation) work as an integrated package but need to purchase each application separately.
• PenUltimate ($.99): iPad note taking application that is also great for sketches, especially if one uses a touch stylus like the Kensington Virtuoso ($24.99).
• QuickOffice Pro ($19.99): An integrated office suite with basic functionality.

Utilities:

• Adobe Photoshop Touch ($9.99): A professional level photo manipulation tool but is only available for the iPad 2.
• Bento for iPad ($9.99): A great Bento for Mac (made by Filemaker) compatible database client.
• Dragon Dictation (Free): An accurate voice transcription application for basic dictation with the basic ability to share via email, Facebook and Twitter.
• iPhoto ($4.99): Provides basic photo manipulation capabilities.
• LogMeIn Ignition (Free): This client accompanies the online remote control web service at LogMeIn.com and allows you to securely remote control a desktop or server back in your office or at home.
• Photon Flash Player Browser ($4.99): Allows you to view Flash content on web sites.

Let us know if you have found other iPad applications that have been of significant benefit to your TRIO program.

WordPress is a free content management system that can be used to create and manage websites or blogs. This very blog runs on WordPress! You can start a WordPress site either by creating an account and have it hosted at WordPress.com, or by downloading the software through WordPress.org and installing it on your own server.

There is no need to learn web programming languages like HTML or graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop to create a WordPress site because WordPress comes with a great visual editor and has a library of themes to choose from that you can install. Getting a WordPress website or blog up and running is simpler and easier than you may think!

WordPress can also be connected to Twitter and Facebook, so every time you publish a new post, the information will propagate across your social media. Since more and more programs and educational insitution are using social media as a way to distribute information, I have shared with you on how to do this below.

Depending on which type of WordPress you are using, the instruction is a bit different.

If you have a WordPress.com site, the ability to connect your WordPress site to Facebook/Twitter is already built-in, so all you need to do is to set it up. For a tutorial, please visit WordPress.com Support Documentation on publicizing posts to social media.

If you run into issues when trying to connect your WordPress.com blog to your Facebook Page, an alternative would be to install RSS Graffiti to your Facebook Page and set it to grab posts through your blog’s RSS feed URL.

If you are using a self-hosted WordPress, you will need to install a social media plugin such as WP to Twitter in combination with RSS Graffiti mentioned above.

(Click for a full-sized PDF version)

This post shows an easy way to create word cloud graphics and screen capture video tutorials. The graphic above is a word cloud generated from topics presented at the CUE (Computer-Using Educators) Conference in California this March. We created it in a few simple steps:

• We created a text document with a list of topics  from the conference
• We repeated the topics to reflect how often they were presented at the conference
• We pasted this list into the free Wordle “word cloud” generator at wordle.net
• We chose colors and  a layout for the graphic that worked well for this post
• We took a screenshot of the image (you can also generate a PDF) and inserted it into our blog

These are a lot of words to describe a very simple process. Another way to describe is is by creating a screencast- a short video tutorial that captures what’s happening on your screen. We used the free tool Jing and a microphone to create the video below. Jing is available for both PCs and Macs and allows you to capture screenshots and quickly create and share video tutorials up to five minutes long. You can then post your videos to the free Screencast.com site with just one click. Here are some ways teachers are using Jing.

• YouTube EDU is a sub-section of YouTube that contains hundreds of thousands of  high-quality educational videos from sources like Staford, PBS, TED, and the Khan Academy.
• YouTube for Schools is a free service that allows schools to configure their networks so that students can watch only YouTube EDU videos and videos that the school has added to an approved list. Comments and related videos are disabled, and the only search results that will appear are for YouTube EDU videos.
•  YouTube Teachers is a site that shows you how to use YouTube in the classroom and includes hundreds of playlists created by teachers for teachers. The playlists are organized by subject and grade and are aligned with common educational standards.

See how Chicago and other school districts are changing their policies in this New York Times article. To learn more, click the links above, or watch this quick intro video.

• Storyboarding: A key element of any media production effort is storyboarding to provide the basic flow and organization of the project. Some sites that have been used by other educators to provide resources in this regard include:
  • Celtx – Online Open Source Storyboarding Tool
  • Tools & Utilities for Filmmakers

• Video Editing: Probably the most convenient video editing tools available to programs are those that come directly from Apple and Microsoft. For the Mac, iMovie is a very powerful digital video editor. As for Windows, Microsoft offers Windows Movie Maker as a free download and provides the basic elements for teaching students about digital video editing. For the iPad, you might also want to take a look at Action Movie FX.

• Royalty Free Images, Video and Audio: Students not only need to learn the issues of media but also the requirements dealing with plagiarism related to original ownership and copyright. A way to alleviate potential problems is to use resources that are in the public domain. Some resources worth exploring include:
  • Creative Commons
  • Internet Archive
  • Discovery Education
  • Google Images
  • Flickr

• Story Telling: A good way to get students engaged in digital media production is through digital story telling. Using resources like those listed by the Digital Storytelling Association can make it easy to integrate into your program. In the effort to teach students about digital storytelling, it’s worth having them consider some of the following key components:
• Point of View – Have students consider not only the reason for a story but also why it should be told now and to whom should it be told.
• A Dramatic Question – What is the question or issue that needs to be addressed? To maintain the interest of the person watching or listening to the story, what’s important and will be answered or resolved by the end of the story. For example, In an adventure, will the hero reach the goal? Once the question is answered, the story is over.
• Emotional Content – Did the story engage emotions? Did it invoke sadness, happiness, excitement, etc?
• Adding Voice – Did the student personalize their story by using their own voice. This has other benefits such as ELL instruction, practicing public speaking, etc.
• The Power of a Soundtrack – Selecting one or more soundtracks can help set the mood of the story and influence the impact and feeling related to the event currently being viewed.
• Economy – Ideally students will only shoot just what is necessary to keep the story visually rich while moving forward, with only the minimum of dialogue and number of scenes necessary to envision the larger story
• Pacing –An audience’s interest is sustained by the rhythm of a story. A fast-paced movie with many quick edits and upbeat music can suggest urgency, action, nervousness, exasperation, and excitement. Conversely, a slow pace can suggest contemplation, romanticism, relaxation, or simple pleasures.

We have been asked frequently to have TRIO programs to tell their story. With the ease and ability that this can be done now by students, maybe we can begin to build a library of stories about TRIO and its success. We welcome comments and contributions related to this post.

Source: Monjan, M. “Digital Storytelling 2.0″, 2012 CUE Conference, Palm Springs, CA

1. Make sure all computers and cell phones have the most current operating system updates. Have staff and students check their computer system and software update settings to make sure that they are either set to be automatic or at least notify that updates are available. In the latter case, an ongoing schedule to do updates is a good practice. Cell phones and carriers treat updates differently. Find out if this is a manual or automatic process with the particular cell phone carrier. For example with Verizon Wireless it is frequently a manual command using *228 on a regular basis and choosing option 1 to get updates.
2. Make sure that applications on both computers and cell phones are also updated automatically or manually on a regular basis. Malware often targets a specific known weakness in an application to gain access to a computer or cell phone.
3. Make sure your anti-virus and anti-spyware license is active and is updating. Check to make sure the most recent protection files are being downloaded and installed. This is one of the first things that malware frequently disables in order to gain control of the system. Cell phones should also be running some kind of anti-virus and anti-spyware solution. There are commercial solutions as well as free versions such as Lookout that can be installed.
4. With respect to eMail, some basic precautions can help prevent potential misfortune or even complete loss of all data on a laptop or computer. In particular, the following will alleviate most of the potential problems:
• If you don’t know the source of a message or your name doesn’t appear in the “To” field, delete it.
• If it looks like a subscription and you know you didn’t subscribe to it, don’t click on the “unsubscribe” link in the message. This will likely only verify that the spammer has a valid email address.
• Banks, PayPal and other services will never ask you to provide personal or financial information in an email. No matter how official a request looks to verify information about yourself, never respond to that message and provide information. Valid sources will usually address you with your name and won’t say “urgent” or “immediate” or ask for information.
• Attachments from an unknown source or even a friend that doesn’t make sense should never be opened. Delete it if it is from an unknown source or verify with someone you know that they sent it if it doesn’t make sense. These attachments may contain viruses or links to infected Web sites.
• If you question something, you can check out the latest scams at: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/e-scams
5. Adopt a protective stance with respect to your computer and information:
   • Trust No One
   • Set your anti-virus to scan everything.
   • If you have any doubt, don’t click on it, delete it.

Wishing you happy and trouble free computing. If you have any questions, just ask and we’ll get back to you.

Google Voice also has powerful features for managing your voice mail and text messages. It allows you to access and manage your voice mail from the web and share voice mails by email. You can compose text messages on your computer and have your text messages sent to your email. It also makes it easy to host conference calls simply by having callers dial your Google Voice number.  Of course there is a mobile app for iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries. Best of all, it’s FREE.

• To learn more, watch the videos at:
  http://www.youtube.com/googlevoice
• To see some of the features available go to:
  http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html
• Suggested topics below. To find out how to ___________ go to :
  http://support.google.com/voice/?hl=en

• Recording calls
• Sending Text Messages
• Setting which phones will ring
• Text message to email
• Call Screening
• Conference calling on the fly
• Recording calls
• Checking messages
• Contacts, Groups, Greetings

With Poll Everywhere you can create free polls for up to 40 people in just a couple of minutes. Premium plans are available with additional features and for polling more users.

Below is an example of the a free poll that was created in just a few seconds. The first 40 people can vote via the Web or by texting or Tweeting their answer as shown below. You can also view the PowerPoint slides and instructions for this poll.

When people vote via the web, this is what they see:

The image to the right shows the results for this poll and how people responded. If you are teaching a small class where each student has free access to texting, a smart phone, or a computer, then the free version of Poll Everywhere might be all you need!